By Pan Pylas, Brian Melley and Ian Hodgson
Associated Press
MANCHESTER, England — An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue in northern England on Thursday and then began stabbing them, killing two and wounding three seriously in an attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, police said.
Police shot and killed the suspect, said Greater Manchester Police. It took police some time to confirm he was dead because of concerns he had an explosive on him.
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The attack took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have soared following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.
More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest reported since the record set a year earlier.
“This is every Rabbi’s or every Jewish person’s worst nightmare,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue and head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain. “Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it’s also a time of mass gathering, and the time when the Jewish community, however religious or irreligious, gathers together.”
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