Dutch Police Foil Bomb Plot at Chabad House Near Amsterdam

Dutch police announced today (Tuesday) that they foiled an attack at the Chabad House next to a Jewish school in the town of (Heemstede), west of Amsterdam. Explosive materials intended for an attack at the Chabad House, which operates in a building affiliated with the school, were found at the scene.

According to a report on Ynet, the incident took place overnight between Thursday and Friday last week. Officers spotted two suspects near the compound. The suspects were detained for questioning and turned out to be teenagers, ages 14 and 17, residents of Amsterdam. During searches at the scene, the explosives were found. The suspects' detention was extended by two weeks.

In a statement from Dutch police, observation posts had recently been placed on the building for security purposes, due to previous threats to harm Jewish institutions in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. As a reminder, in recent weeks there were reports of attempted attacks at a synagogue in Rotterdam and at a Talmud Torah in Amsterdam. An organization called \"Al-Yamin al-Islamiyah\" claimed responsibility for the incidents.

In addition to the incident in the Netherlands, a Muslim organization took responsibility last night (between Monday and Tuesday) for setting a vehicle on fire in an Haredi neighborhood in Antwerp, Belgium. Three masked men set a car ablaze outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in the city. A statement from local police said the car does not belong to a Jew, but the arsonists believed it belonged to one of the Haredi residents living in the area. Two suspects were arrested thanks to the quick response of a patrol team from the \"Chaverim\" organization and a patrol team from the \"Shmira\" organization.The arson was carried out even though security had been increased in recent days on the streets of Antwerp’s Haredi community, and soldiers from the Belgian army were deployed in the neighborhood.

Local media reported that an Islamic organization published a statement saying:\"The actions will continue to escalate and intensify until the liberation of our beloved Palestine’s occupied lands and revenge for the blood of the Palestinians, the Lebanese, and all Muslims\".

It should be noted that a similar incident occurred the night before last in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. In that incident, four ambulances belonging to a rescue organization were set on fire in the Golders Green neighborhood.