An extremist group that claimed responsibility for an explosion outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam has said it was also behind a second blast in the city days later, according to Dutch police.
Officers are investigating the latest blast, which led to a small fire and caused minor damage to an office building but no injuries, Reuters news agency reported yesterday.
It is not known yet if the building has any Jewish or Israeli connection.
Police are investigating whether this blast is linked to the school explosion that occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning. No injuries were reported in the first explosion, which the authorities are treating as a targeted antisemitic attack.
That was the second antisemitic attack in the country in as many days, coming after an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam, about 40 miles southeast of the capital.
A new extremist group calling itself Ashab Al Yamin has claimed responsibility for all three attacks, as well as for the bombing of a synagogue in the city of Liege, in neighbouring Belgium, last Monday. The name of the group roughly translates to “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous”.
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, described Saturday’s school explosion as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community” and a “cowardly act of aggression”.
She said in a statement: “I understand the fear and anger of Jewish Amsterdammers. They are increasingly confronted with antisemitism, and that is unacceptable.”
Dutch police said on Friday they had arrested four men, all aged from 17 to 19, on suspicion of setting off the explosion in Rotterdam.
Following the blast, police monitored other synagogues as a precaution and stopped a vehicle near another shul driven by someone matching the description of one of the suspects, they said.
"It is not yet clear whether the suspects planned to detonate an explosive or set fire to another synagogue as well," they said in a statement.
Following the school attack, Israel’s foreign ministry said: “In the Netherlands, an antisemitism epidemic is raging.”
In a post on X first referring to a series of attacks on Israeli fans of the football team Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam in November 2024, the ministry said: “We saw its scope in the pogrom against Israelis in Amsterdam in November 2024. In the attack on the synagogue in Rotterdam two days ago. In the attack on a Jewish school in Amsterdam yesterday.”
It continued: “Where will the next attack be? The Dutch government needs to do much more to fight antisemitism.”
There has been a string of attacks targeting Jewish institutions in Europe and North America since the outbreak of the Iran War, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
On Thursday, a man rammed his truck through the doors and down the corridor of Temple Israel Synagogue in Michigan, the largest Reform shul in the US, before exchanging gunfire with security guards and dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In Toronto, three synagogues have been hit with gunfire in a matter of days, while in Norway, three people were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of possessing illegal firearms and explosive equipment outside Oslo Synagogue, the country’s largest shul.
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