Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered two planes to be dispatched to Amsterdam to bring back Israeli fans who were violently assaulted by an anti-Israel mob in the Dutch capital, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Supporters of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv football team were attacked in Amsterdam on Thursday night as they left the stadium after a Europa League match against Dutch side Ajax.
At least ten Israelis were injured in the attacks, but the severity of their injuries remains unclear, the Israeli Foreign Ministry stated, adding that the affected fans are currently out of contact. It advised Israeli citizens not to leave their hotels.
Israel’s National Security Council has urged people not to display Israeli or Jewish symbols in public.
Netanyahu urged Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and local law enforcement “to act decisively and swiftly against the rioters, and to ensure the wellbeing of our citizens.”
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon condemned the violence as “a pogrom.”
“These are the true faces of the supporters of the radical terrorism we are fighting. The Western world needs to wake up now!” he wrote in a post on X.
The embassy shared a video on social media purportedly showing violent incidents involving Maccabi fans.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that around 30 people have been arrested so far.
Amsterdam police said they increased their presence in the city on Wednesday night ahead of the match. On Wednesday night, officers prevented a confrontation between a group of taxi drivers and a group of visitors, according to a police statement on X.
They also reported another incident in which a Palestinian flag was torn down in the city center by “currently unknown persons.”
Some media outlets reported that Israeli football hooligans tore down Palestinian flags as they marched through Amsterdam on Wednesday night, which could have led to a subsequent confrontation.
Earlier this year, a survey from the Fundamental Rights Agency showed that Jewish people in the EU have faced high levels of anti-Semitism. A dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents has been recorded since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last October when the militant group attacked Israel, killing around 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages.
Israel’s bombing and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza, in which over 43,000 people are reported to have been killed, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, have sparked pro-Palestinian and anti-war protests around the world.