// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Antisemitic incident reports rise by a fifth in first half of 2026
People attend a protest outside Manchester Cathedral after the Heaton Park synagogue terror attack which killed two people in October 2025
The number of antisemitic incidents recorded across the UK since the start of the year is up by a fifth compared to last year, figures show.
The Community Security Trust (CST), an organisation that provides security support to the Jewish community, recorded 1,926 incidents of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in the first six months of 2026.
It represents a 21% increase on the number of similar incidents reported in the first half of last year.
It also marks the second highest total of antisemitic hate incidents ever recorded by CST in the first half of any year since the organisation began collecting data in 1984.
Policing Minister Sarah Jones said the numbers were "appalling" and showed people "living in fear just for being who they are".
The incidents logged in the first few months of 2026 include a series of arson attacks against Jewish organisations and synagogues in London.
Four volunteer ambulances were set alight in Golders Green in March. The following month two visibly Jewish men were stabbed nearby, in an attack which was treated as an act of terrorism.
The CST said it recorded noticeable surges in antisemitic incidents following these events, with the highest daily total following the double stabbing on 29 April.
Hatred continues to be directed at British Jews at a higher level than before 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and the war in Gaza began.