Explosion Striking Jewish School Was ‘A Deliberate Attack,’ Mayor Says

An overnight bomb tore into the outer wall of a Jewish school in Amsterdam, and the city’s mayor is calling it an act of antisemitic aggression.

The bomb went off overnight at Cheider, a Jewish school in Amsterdam’s Buitenveldert neighborhood, NL Times reported Saturday. The institution serves Orthodox Jewish students from elementary through secondary levels. The blast caused minor damage and no injuries. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the bombing as a targeted assault on the city’s Jewish population.

“This is a cowardly act of aggression toward the Jewish community,” Halsema said. “I understand the fear and anger of Jewish Amsterdammers. They are increasingly confronted with antisemitism, and that is unacceptable.” (RELATED: Suspect In Synagogue Attack Died Of Self-Inflicted Wound To The Head)

BREAKING: Amsterdam Mayor, Femke Halsema, has reported that an explosion at a Jewish school was a targeted attack against the Jewish community.

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Justice Minister David van Weel noted the back-to-back nature of the violence. “Two nights in a row a cowardly attack with an explosive at a Jewish building. First in Rotterdam, now in Amsterdam,” van Weel wrote, according to NL Times. He credited existing security protocols with preventing greater destruction.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said “there must be no place for antisemitism” in the Netherlands, the BBC reported. Israel’s foreign ministry went further, declaring that “in the Netherlands, an antisemitism epidemic is raging.” The ministry pointed to the Amsterdam and Rotterdam incidents alongside a November 2024 assault on Israeli soccer fans in the Dutch capital. Tensions across Europe have risen following joint Israeli-U.S. military operations against Iran, the BBC noted.

The Amsterdam bombing followed a Thursday night attack on a Rotterdam synagogue that also involved an explosive, the Jerusalem Post reported. Authorities detained four suspects between the ages of 17 and 19 after stopping their vehicle near a separate synagogue. A Shi’ite militant group calling itself Ashab Al Yamim claimed responsibility for recent attacks on Jewish sites. A synagogue in Liège, Belgium, also suffered a bombing on Monday.