Israel to send planes to Amsterdam after violence against Israeli football fans

Enas Alashray and Bart H. Meyer

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered two rescue planes to the Netherlands on Friday after violence broke out against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam overnight.

Videos circulating on social media showed nightly street clashes and riot police intervention.

The order to send the planes came after a “very violent incident” targeting Israeli citizens following a game between Ajax Amsterdam, a traditionally Jewish club, and Maccabi Tel Aviv, his office said.

An eyewitness captured video confirmed by Reuters showing a group of men running near Amsterdam Central Station, chasing and attacking other men as police sirens sounded.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens. This is completely unacceptable.”

In a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, he assured him “that those responsible will be identified and brought to justice,” he said in a statement on X.

Local police said 57 suspects were detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff stadium, even though city authorities had banned protests there.

Police said fans left the stadium without incident, but clashes broke out in the city center overnight.

Israeli media and politicians reacted with shock to the violence, calling it some of the worst since the Gaza war began more than a year ago.

Top-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronot quoted Israeli fans as saying the attacks appeared to be planned.

President Isaac Herzog was among senior Israeli politicians who said the violence was reminiscent of an attack on Israel by Hamas militants last year, as well as anti-Semitic attacks on European Jews during pogroms of previous centuries.

“This morning we are horrified to see shocking images and videos that since October 7 we had hoped to never see again: the anti-Semitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi fans in Tel Aviv and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam,” he said. He. X wrote in a post on social media.

The Israeli military said it was preparing to immediately launch a rescue operation coordinated by the Dutch government after the football match in which Ajax beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 5-0.

“The mission will be deployed using cargo aircraft and will include medical and rescue teams,” the IDF said.

According to Israel, passions ran high in the Middle East and abroad after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostage.

At least 43,469 Palestinians have been killed and another 102,561 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack, according to health officials in the enclave.

The Gaza War sparked protests on both sides across Europe and the United States, and Arabs and Jews came under attack.

Anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, condemned reports of the Amsterdam attacks in a post on X.

“It’s a shame that this could happen in the Netherlands. Completely unacceptable,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has asked the Dutch government to help Israeli citizens arrive at the airport safely, Saar told his Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp in a telephone conversation on Friday.

(This story has been moved to correct a typo in the title)

(Reporting by Enas Alashray in Cairo, Ahmed Elimam in Dubai; Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Mahezabin Syed in Bengaluru; Writing by Michael Giorgi and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Lincoln Feast and Michael Perry)