The area outside the Manchester synagogue, where multiple people were killed on Yom Kippur in what police have declared a terrorist incident, is cordoned off, in north Manchester, UK, Friday 3 October 2025; Credit: REUTERS/Phil Noble

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - The UK government vowed to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism on Friday 3 October 2025, as the Jewish community reeled from an attack at a Manchester synagogue that killed two people on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The Israeli government has accused the UK of allowing rampant antisemitism to spread through UK cities and on its university campuses in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked Israel's war in Gaza.

Earlier on Friday, police named the two men killed in the attack as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both local residents.

The men were killed on Thursday 2 October when a man drove a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing them outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the city in northern England.

The attacker has been named by police as Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, who was shot dead at the scene by armed officers.

The UK’s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, said she understood the strength of feeling held by all sides on the conflict in Gaza but said it was important that that did not spill over into tensions on UK streets.

"We will do whatever is required to keep our Jewish community safe," Mahmood told Times Radio. "People will see a heavier police presence at all communal facilities - primarily synagogues, but other places within the community as well."

Antisemitism has soared to record levels in the UK since the October 2023 attacks, with Jewish leaders saying they have been left terrified by regular, large pro-Palestine marches in major cities that they say promote hatred towards Jews.

In the hours after the attack on Thursday 3 October several pro-Palestine protests took place in UK cities, with police clashing with demonstrators outside Downing Street, leading to 40 arrests.

Mahmood said the protests, happening just hours after the attack, were un-British and dishonourable.

"I would call on everybody who is considering protest in the next day or two to just take a step back and to show some humanity and some love towards a community that is grieving," she said.