The buildup to attacks on Israeli football supporters in Amsterdam

The attacks on Israeli football supporters in Amsterdam this week followed tensions that began brewing days before between the fans and pro-Palestinian activists and other people in the city, a chronology of events showed.

Supporters of Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv were targeted for beatings by groups of thugs in the early hours of Friday following a match with Amsterdam's Ajax, the city's mayor Femke Halsema has said.

Among dozens of Israeli supporters who were chased and assaulted, five suffered injuries needing hospital treatment, police said. In all, 63 suspects have been arrested and authorities promised an investigation, as politicians within the country and beyond expressed their condemnation.

Tension began to build on Wednesday as some of the 3,000 visiting Maccabi supporters had minor altercations with locals including taxi drivers and Ajax supporters in the city centre, police said.

A police report said groups of Maccabi supporters burned a Palestinian flag on Dam square, pulled another down from a nearby building and vandalised a taxi.

After a call on social media, angry Muslim taxi drivers came together outside a casino where 400 Maccabi supporters were gathered, and police intervened in skirmishes.

Some Dutch media have reported that social media videos from Wednesday show the beating of a Muslim taxi driver and youths yelling antisemitic slurs at a Maccabi supporter who was pushed into a canal. Reuters was unable to verify those descriptions of the scenes.

On the day of the game, Maccabi supporters were filmed chanting anti-Arab slogans in front of the National Monument on Amsterdam's central Dam square in videos verified by Reuters.

Dutch pro-Palestinian groups planned a demonstration outside the stadium during the game. They argued that the match should have been cancelled because of Israel's war in Gaza, in which more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed.

But Dutch authorities allowed it to proceed because the relationship between supporters of the two teams — the usual source of football violence — is generally good, Halsema said on Friday.

With a confrontation between protesters and football supporters considered the biggest security threat, the mayor moved the demonstration against the match to a remote location.

Ajax's most hardcore supporters, known as the F-Side, had said politics and football should be kept separate and that they would "intervene if necessary" if the demonstration went ahead at the stadium.

Ajax has strong Jewish associations, and fans sometimes carry Star of David flags to matches; it also has many Muslim supporters.

Riot police at the stadium kept opposing groups apart, and few incidents were reported when the match ended around 1p.m.

But around midnight, security fell apart in the city centre.

Amsterdam banned demonstrations through the weekend and gave police emergency stop-and-search powers.