Israel deploys rescue planes to Amsterdam after violent attacks on football fans
57 people were arrested after violence between football fans broke out following a game in the Dutch capital. Both leaders described the violence as antisemitic.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deployed two planes to Amsterdam to rescue Israeli citizens after what he and Dutch officials described as “antisemitic” attacks broke out following a football game.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that 10 people had been injured and two were missing, advising its citizens to stay in their hotel rooms.
The fans were in Amsterdam to watch a game between Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch team Ajax.
Fans were reportedly assaulted in different locations in the Dutch capital before the game started. Several additional attacks begun after Israli team lost to Ajax, according to the Times of Israel.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the attacks “completely unacceptable” and “anti-Semitic,” adding he was in contact with his Israeli counterpart.
He said that the situation was under control and that perpetrators would be found and prosecuted.
Netanyahu announced he was sending planes to the Netherlands, which would include medical and rescue planes, and he had spoken to the Dutch Prime Minister.
IDF International Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani described the decision to send planes to Amsterdam as part of a “historic duty of protecting our people.”
Videos posted on social media showed chaos on city streets, with groups attacking one another. One widely circulated video, which has not been indepently verified by Euronews, shows a person on the ground in the middle of a street being kicked by multiple people.
“We woke up this morning to shocking images and videos that since October 7th, we had hoped never to see again: an antisemitic pogrom,” said Israel’s president Isaac Herzog on social media.
Dutch police said 57 people had already been arrested in connection to the attacks, many in the Johan Cruyff Arena where the football game was taking place.
They added that ten arrests took place before the game even started, when hundreds of Maccabi supporters gathered in the centre of Amsterdam early Thursday.
Another 30 were arrested at square Anton de Komplein, near the football stadium, where people were protesting the arrival of the Israeli football club and clashed with police.
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, had previously banned a protest from happening int the stadium and directed it to the square.