Netanyahu sends 2 planes to Netherlands to evacuate Israeli soccer fans after violence surrounding Amsterdam match

Amsterdam — Anti-Semitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli fans to target and attack them” after a soccer match, Amsterdam authorities said Friday, as Israel said it was sending planes to the Dutch capital to send fans home.

An unknown number of Israeli fans were injured in Thursday night’s violence, which Dutch and Israeli leaders condemned as anti-Semitic.

The attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv football club fans happened after the Europa League match between their team and Ajax.

The violence erupted despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who feared clashes between protesters and supporters of an Israeli soccer club.

Halsema said supporters of the Israeli team were injured, and the extent of the violence and the number of arrests were still being determined, Reuters reported.

Agence France-Presse reported that a Dutch police spokesman told Dutch news agency ANP that 57 people had been arrested.

AFP said social media platforms were flooded with unverified images purporting to show the violence, but authorities provided few confirmed details.

AFP reports that AT5 reported that the clashes broke out around midnight with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in central Amsterdam. “A large number of mobile unit vehicles are present and reinforcements have been called in,” AT5 said.

Details remained unclear, but Israel ordered two planes to be sent to the Dutch capital to bring the Israelis home.

“The Prime Minister has ordered two rescue planes to be dispatched immediately to help our citizens,” said a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

It added that “the brutal images of the attack on our citizens in Amsterdam will not go unnoticed” and that Netanyahu “views the deliberate anti-Semitic attack on Israeli citizens with extreme seriousness.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “decisive and swift action” against those involved.

Netanyahu’s office added that he called for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X that he was “horrified” by reports of violence.

“Anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis are completely unacceptable. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying he had spoken to Netanyahu and “stressed that those responsible will be found and brought to justice. Now it’s calm in the capital.”

In a post on social media platform X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog Israel condemned the attacks as a “pogrom” and said they resembled Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli embassy in Washington said on X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans “were ambushed and attacked today in Amsterdam as they were leaving the stadium after the game,” AFP reported. The embassy blamed “a mob targeting innocent Israelis” for the violence.

Geert Wilders, a hard-right nationalist lawmaker whose Freedom Party won last year’s election in the Netherlands and is a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to the video, which apparently shows the Maccabi fan surrounded by several men.

“It’s like hunting Jews on the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum who attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters on our streets. It’s a shame that this could happen in the Netherlands. Absolutely unacceptable,” said Wilders.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, also condemned the violence in a post on social media platform X.