Reports of anti-Semitic incidents have tripled since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, a charity has said.
Community Security Trust, which logs anti-Semitic incidents, said the number of reports has tripled from what it would normally expect from Saturday to Monday, and the real total could be higher.
Speaking to the Jewish News, director of policy Dave Rich said: “The rise in anti-Semitic incidents is deeply troubling, but sadly not unexpected.
“We encourage everyone to report incidents to us and, importantly, to the police, and we are working flat out to support everyone who gets in touch.”
The Met Police has stepped up patrols in Jewish areas of London in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas militants which left more than 900 Israelis dead.
The force said it had arrested three people, two of whom were arrested close to a pro-Palestine demonstration which occurred outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington on Monday.
Five more arrest inquiries are ongoing.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday visited Golders Green in north London, a suburb with a large Jewish population, after a kosher restaurant was vandalised and pro-Palestinian graffiti was daubed on a nearby railway bridge.
The incident caused alarm among the Jewish community, but the Met said the attack on the Pita kosher restaurant on Golders Green Road was not being treated as a hate crime, and was instead being treated as a “potential linked series of burglaries at commercial premises in the local area”.
The graffiti, which read “Free Palestine!”, has been condemned as “disgraceful” and “a deliberate attempt to intimidate the Jewish community”, and is being treated as a separate hate crime by the British Transport Police.
Speaking in front of the damaged restaurant, Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: “The local community feel they are under siege, and my job is to make sure their views are fed back into the heart of government and the PM wants to be kept fully informed.”
