UK Confronts Rising Long-Term Terror Threat From Gaza War

People attend a vigil to remember the victims of the Manchester Synagogue attack in Manchester, UK on Oct. 3.Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas flared anew two years ago, UK security officials have braced for the bloodshed to spread into local streets. On Thursday — Yom Kippur — the violence finally struck Britain’s Jewish community.

The attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester was the deadliest domestic terrorist attack since 2020. The assailant — identified by police as a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent — drove a vehicle at the temple and then attacked worshipers with a knife, recalling a spate of car-ramming and stabbing attacks in 2017 and 2019.