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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Shocking moment orthodox Jewish man punched in head by thug in north London

An orthodox Jewish man was "punched in the head" by a thug on a bike in a shocking attack in Stamford Hill.

It is not clear if the assault, which was captured on CCTV, is being treated as a hate crime.

It comes amid a huge spike in antisemitic attacks that have been reported across the UK, and particularly in London, since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

Footage of the Stamford Hill attack shows a man on a bike cycling at speed along a busy pavement before almost colliding with the victim, who was walking with a bag of shopping.

The attacker then appears to grab and push the man, knocking his hat to the floor.

Shocked passers-by are seen trying to intervene, before the man cycles away from the scene and a bystander picks up the victim's hat and returns it to him.

Sharing the video on X, formerly Twitter, Jewish neighbourhood watch group Shomrim said: "The myriad of antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community of north London continues!

"CCTV obtained by @Shomrim shows a visibly orthodox Jewish male being punched to the head on #StamfordHill".

The video had been viewed more than 24,000 times by Thursday morning.

Users shared their horror, branding the attack "disgusting" and a "disgrace".

Scotland Yard has confirmed it is investigating the incident, but has not yet said if it is treating the incident as a hate crime.

Antisemitic incidents in the capital and elsewhere in the UK have risen sharply in recent months.

Jewish charity Community Security Trust (CST) said that as of Wednesday, there have been at least 2,093 such incidents reported in the UK, since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7. The majority of them - 1,223 - have taken place in London.

It marks the highest total ever reported to CST across a 68-day period, and is more than the total reported throughout the entire year prior to Hamas’ attack on Israel.

Across the same 68 days in 2022, CST recorded 330 antisemitic incidents.

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