Dutch authorities say at least five people have been hurt and dozens more arrested after a violent outbreak in Amsterdam following a soccer match between AFC Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Five people were hospitalized and dozens arrested in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, police said Friday, after what authorities said was violence targeting Israeli soccer fans.
Footage circulating on social media showed violence in the city’s streets, with one video geolocated by NBC News to near Amsterdam's central station showing people chasing others and physically assaulting them.
Separate video geolocated by NBC News showed fans of Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam singing “Death to the Arabs” and “Let the IDF win. We will f*** the Arabs,” as well as tearing down a Palestinian flag.
Israeli and Dutch leaders denounced what they described as an antisemitic attack, and Israel dispatched multiple commercial planes to bring fans home.
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Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema’s office described the events following the match between Dutch giants Ajax and the Israeli side as “very turbulent, with several incidents of violence aimed at Maccabi supporters.” It said that "rioters" had " actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them.”
At a news conference Friday, Halsema said emergency measures had been put in place across the city, including a ban on demonstrations.
The events were a "shame" to the city, she said. Local police said that five people required hospital care, while 20 to 30 others suffered non-serious injuries. 62 people were arrested, police said.
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Eyewitness describes attack
Iddo Gold, 23, told NBC News that he and other Maccabi fans had taken the train into Amsterdam’s city center after the game. When they arrived, a group of people appeared to be waiting and began to attack the crowd, he said in a video call Friday.
“Everybody ran through the streets,” Gold said. “Whatever they saw in the street, they tried to attack us with,” he said, saying that some of the attackers were armed with knives, while others chased the soccer fans on motorbikes.
Gold said that many of the Israeli supporters tried to flee the violence into nearby hotels. He said he let one man stay with him at his hotel until around 6 a.m. as he was too afraid to go back outside.
Describing the violence as “pure antisemitism” Gold said that on Friday he was still too “frightened to go into the streets."
In a video shared by the Israeli Embassy is Washington, which NBC News has not been able to independently verify, a man could be seen being beaten as an attacker shouts, “This is for the children! Free Palestine now!”
Tevel Caro, 18, said he and a friend had already made it back to their hotel when they began to receive messages from other Maccabi fans about the violence.
On Friday, he said they were staying at a safe house with dozens of other Israelis, worried about how they would get back home.
Noting that he would soon be serving in the Israeli military, Caro said he was disappointed Israel did not deploy military planes in addition to commercial ones to Amsterdam.
"I felt so lonely. You know, like I'm supposed to get deployed in two weeks and no one cares about me," he said.
The hours prior to the game had seen a number of incidents that led to hundreds of officers being dispatched from across the country to assist with policing, Amsterdam's acting police chief, Peter Holla, said during Friday’s news conference.
In one incident on Wednesday, he said, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters had attacked a taxi and a Palestinian flag.
Israeli fans had gathered in a square in the lead-up to the game Thursday, he said, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators also gathering nearby — and he said authorities had difficulties keeping the two groups apart.
It was after the match that the violence ensued, he said.
World leaders decry violence
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the antisemitic attacks on Israeli citizens.”
He described the violence as “completely unacceptable” and said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone “to stress that the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.”
Other European leaders echoed those sentiments, with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock calling the images emerging from Amsterdam “horrific & deeply shameful for us in Europe,” in a post on X.
Netanyahu was briefed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ situation room on Friday.
In comments shared by his office, he said Israel “cannot accept this” and that the violence “puts us and them, the free countries and the Netherlands, in danger.”
He compared the incident to Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” when almost exactly 86 years ago on Nov. 9, 1938, mobs launched vicious attacks on Jews in Germany as part of a pogrom led by Nazi forces.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also branded the violence an “antisemitic pogrom.” He later spoke with King Willem-Alexander, the Dutch royal family said. The king expressed his shock and said "history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse, with horrific consequences."
"Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands," he said.
U.S. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, condemned the incident and also said it was "terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom."
They were among a number of officials across the world to draw such parallels after the events, which unfolded in a city that was once home to a young Anne Frank and her family as they hid from Nazi occupiers during World War Two.
Ajax has historically been seen as having strong links to the city's large Jewish community.
Lipstadt said she was also "deeply disturbed by how long the reported attacks lasted and call on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into security force intervention and on how these despicable attacks transpired."
European soccer's governing body, UEFA, condemned the violence in a statement on Friday, saying that it trusted authorities to "identify and charge as many of those responsible for such actions as possible."
UEFA said it planned to "examine all official reports, gather available evidence, assess them and evaluate any further appropriate course of action in accordance with its relevant regulatory framework."
Thursday night's events unfolded as Israel continued its deadly offensive in Gaza, where local officials say more than 43,000 people have been killed in the yearlong assault launched following Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which Israeli officials say some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage.
Israel has also waged a monthslong offensive in Lebanon in its fight against Hezbollah, as members of the international community seek to avoid an all-out war in the region.
Those conflicts have sparked protests across the world, including at sporting events. A giant "Free Palestine" banner was unveiled at a Paris Saint Germain game on Wednesday, drawing criticism from France's interior minister. Israel’s national team is scheduled to play France in Paris on Nov. 14.
— Raf Sanchez and Sara Mhaidli contributed.
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