Israeli football fans attacked in Amsterdam, it was reported that five were hospitalized and a number of suspects were arrested

Amsterdam – Anti-Semitic rioters “called for Israeli fans to attack and beat them” after a football match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said on Friday, while police reported that five people were hospitalized and 62 arrested after overnight violence. Police have not disclosed the nationalities of any of those injured or arrested in the aftermath of the riots in the Dutch capital.

The Israeli government said it was helping arrange flights home for Israeli supporters caught up in the violence.

Israel is “doing everything possible to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked in the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “It was decided that it was not necessary to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, the effort will focus on providing civil aviation solutions to find our citizens.”

Israel’s aviation authority said the first of two flights sent to bring the country’s citizens left Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv and was expected to arrive in Amsterdam within hours.

Dutch leaders have also condemned the violence against Israeli supporters as anti-Semitic.

The attack on supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team took place after a Europa League soccer match between their team and local Amsterdam club Ajax, but there were clashes between Israeli fans and locals before the game, too.

The violence broke out despite a ban on a Palestinian protest near the football stadium put in place by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who feared that clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli club.

The violent clashes reportedly took place around midnight local time, with several fights and acts of vandalism in central Amsterdam.

There were also clashes before the match, as Maccabi fans were among hundreds marching in central Amsterdam in an anti-Israel protest, where flares were lit and Palestinian flags were reportedly torn down amid chants of “death to the killers.” the Arabs.”

In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had ordered two “rescue planes” to be sent to Amsterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but that decision was later reversed. Netanyahu’s office also banned any members of the country’s military from flying to the Netherlands indefinitely.

“The brutal images of the attack on the citizens of Amsterdam cannot be ignored,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that the Israeli government “views organized attacks on Israeli citizens with great gravity.”

Netanyahu’s office demanded that the Dutch government “take strong and swift action” against those involved.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he followed reports of violence “with alarm.”

“The Israeli attack is totally unacceptable. I am close to everyone involved,” he added, saying he had spoken with Netanyahu and “he stressed that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. Now there is silence in the capital.”

In a post on social media X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog Israel condemned the attack as a “pogrom,” referring to historic anti-Semitic attacks in Russia and eastern Europe, and said it was reminiscent of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked a spark Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on X “hundreds” of Maccabi fans “were ambushed in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following the match,” according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on “a mob targeting innocent people in Israel.”

Geert Wilders, the country’s far-right lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch friend of Israel, responded to a video showing a Maccabi fan surrounded by several men.

“It looks like a Jew who hunts in the streets of Amsterdam. He caught and chased away the scum of different cultures that attacked the supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv in our streets. He is ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands. It is absolutely unacceptable,” said Wilders.