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Israel sends 2 planes to fly home football fans as clashes erupt after Europa League match in Amsterdam

Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were reportedly 'attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks' amid rising 'antisemitic incidents' in the Netherlands

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Dutch mobile Police officers stand guard after several scuffles broke out in the city center following a UEFA Europa League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam. Photo: AFP

By AFP

Published: Fri 8 Nov 2024, 2:21 PM

Israel sent two planes to bring back fans of an Israeli soccer team from the Netherlands on Friday after overnight attacks in the streets that officials described as antisemitic.

Videos circulating on social media showed riot police intervening in street clashes, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were "attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks" and that riot police had to intervene several times to protect them and escort them to hotels.

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Antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands have surged since Israel launched its assault on Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Hamas group, with many Jewish organisations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the order to send planes was taken after "a very violent incident" targeting Israeli citizens after the match between Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club.

An eyewitness captured a video verified by Reuters showing a group of men running near Amsterdam central station, chasing and assaulting other men, as police sirens sounded.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was "horrified by the antisemitic attacks on Israeli citizens", which he called "completely unacceptable".

Schoof assured Netanyahu by phone that "the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted", he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

Anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, head of the largest party in the Dutch government, said he was "ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands".

57 suspects detained

Police said 57 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, even though the city had forbidden a protest there.

They said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5-0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city centre.

President Isaac Herzog was among senior Israeli politicians who said the violence recalled the attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen last year as well as attacks on European Jews in the pogroms of previous centuries.

"We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since October 7th, we had hoped never to see again: an anti-Semitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam," he wrote on X.

Israel's largest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Israeli fans saying the attacks appeared to have been planned.

The Israeli military said it was sending cargo aircraft to the Netherlands along with medical and rescue teams in coordination with the Dutch government.

The Gaza war has sparked protests in support of both sides across Europe and the United States, and both Jews and Arabs have been attacked.

Over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 others injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack, according to health officials in the enclave, after the Palestinian militant group killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israel.

AFP

Published: Fri 8 Nov 2024, 2:21 PM

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