Police on Saturday were questioning six people arrested on suspicion of terror offenses after an attack on a synagogue in northwest England that left two men dead and Britain's Jewish community shocked and grieving. Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police on Thursday outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester after he rammed a car into pedestrians, attacked them with a knife, and tried to force his way into the building, per the AP. Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, died in the attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Police say Daulby was accidentally shot by an armed officer as he and other congregants barricaded the synagogue to block Al-Shamie from entering. Three other men are hospitalized with serious injuries. Three men and three women, between the ages of 18 and somewhere in their 60s, were arrested in the greater Manchester area on suspicion of the "commission, preparation, and instigation of acts of terrorism," as police work to determine whether the attacker acted alone.
Detectives say Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian origin who lived in Manchester, may have been influenced by "extreme Islamist ideology." He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake. Police said Al-Shamie was on bail over an alleged rape at the time of the attack but hadn't been charged.
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The attack has devastated Britain's Jewish community and intensified debate about the line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Recorded antisemitic incidents in the UK have risen sharply since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel's ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza, per the Community Security Trust charity. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, said the attack was the result of "an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred" on the streets and online.
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