ten injured after incidents targeting Israeli supporters after a Europa League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered, early Friday, November 8, the sending of two planes to Amsterdam (Netherlands) to rescue football supporters after violence and attacks which led to dozens of arrests in margin of a Europa League match which took place Thursday evening and pitted Ajax Amsterdam against Maccabi Tel Aviv (5-0). “The Prime Minister ordered the immediate dispatch of two relief planes to help our citizens”according to a press release from his services, which specifies that Mr. Netanyahu considered “the appalling incident with the greatest seriousness”.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Israeli nationals in Amsterdam to stay in their hotel rooms following the attacks on the city's streets. “Fans who went to watch a football match faced anti-Semitism and were attacked with unimaginable cruelty simply because they were Jewish and Israeli”said the minister.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretzciting information from the Dutch authorities taken up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Jewish state, ten Israelis were injured in this violence. Their condition remains unknown. This ministry added that it had not been able to contact two other Israeli nationals.

Naftali Bennett, short-lived Israeli Prime Minister from 2021 to 2022, posted videos of these attacks on X overnight. “It looks like a PLANNED and ORGANIZED POGROM”he wrote. “Innocent people knocked down, beaten, thrown into a river, etc. I call on the Dutch authorities to act immediately to avoid injuries and worse. »

The videos he shared show people being hit, including on the ground. On some, attackers shout « Free Palestine » and insults in Arabic. Other messages, posted in particular by anti-fascist pages, accuse Israeli supporters of provocations and hateful chants.

A strong police force

According to Haaretzapproximately 3,000 Israeli citizens traveled to Amsterdam to attend the meeting. The newspaper reported that, according to testimonies from supporters, some of the attacks had been real, planned ambushes. Attackers are said to have set traps for Israelis in several places in the city as they returned from the match by train.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has asked the Dutch government to help Israeli nationals get to the airport safely, he told his Dutch counterpart, Caspar, on Friday. Veldkamp.

“A large number of vehicles from the mobile unit are present and reinforcements have also been called. Young people also allegedly provoked the police,” described local media AT5. Law enforcement officers protected and escorted Israeli supporters to their hotel, according to images shared by AT5. Amsterdam police, cited by the ANP agency, indicated that they had made 57 arrests in total during the day. She had indicated, Thursday, on her X account that she was “particularly vigilant”after reporting several incidents, including a Palestinian flag torn from a facade “by strangers”.

In the afternoon, around a hundred Israeli supporters gathered on Dam Square – surrounded by a strong police force – before going to the Johan-Cruyff stadium, located in the southwest of the Dutch city.

A pro-Palestinian rally condemning the arrival of the Israeli club was initially planned near the stadium, but it was moved a little further into the neighborhood by Amsterdam city hall for security reasons.

In recent months, several matches of Israeli teams have been held on neutral grounds, notably in Hungary, for fear of violence linked to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.