Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam ambushed by gangs of anti-Israel attackers shouting ‘Free Palestine,’ Netanyahu sends planes to evacuate citizens
Hundreds of Israeli soccer fans were hunted down and viciously assaulted by gangs of thugs shouting, “Free Palestine!” in Amsterdam overnight – prompting the Jewish state to send rescue planes to evacuate its terrified citizens, officials said Friday.
Scores of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were set upon by rioters as they were leaving the stadium after a Europa League game against a Dutch team, AFC Ajax, late Thursday in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried as a “planned antisemitic attack.”
At least 20 to 30 people were injured in the ordeal, including five who had to be hospitalized, police said. A handful of other people have yet to make contact with their loved ones in the wake of the violence, the Times of Israel reported, citing officials.
At least 62 suspects were arrested during the chaos, including 10 who were still in custody, authorities said.
“This is a very dark moment for the city, for which I am deeply ashamed,” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema told reporters, adding the ordeal was orchestrated by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who pelted some victims with fireworks.
“Antisemitic criminals attacked and assaulted visitors to our city in hit-and-run actions,” she said.
Many of the suspects were able to flee the heavy police presence on scooters, the mayor said.
Footage of the violence showed assailants shouting anti-Israeli slurs as cowering victims were kicked and beaten.
In another disturbing clip, a fan could be seen surrounded by several attackers, including one who appeared to be holding a Palestinian flag, as a suspect kicked him to the ground.
A separate assault showed a helpless victim lying on the ground as he was kicked repeatedly.
One man was mowed down by a car, causing him to flip over the hood, according to footage shared by the Israeli Embassy to the United States.
“Israeli soccer fans should be allowed to support their team without fear of physical danger,” the embassy said. “The days of chasing Jews down European city streets should remain in the dark annals of history.”
Netanyahu directed two rescue planes to be flown to Amsterdam to assist Israeli citizens, his office said early Friday.
The Israeli National Security Council also urged Israelis to hunker down in their hotel rooms and avoid going out on the street or wearing any visible Jewish or Israeli symbols in the wake of the attack.
Netanyahu called on the Dutch government and authorities to take “vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and ensure the safety of our citizens.
“The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” the prime minister’s office tweeted.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens,” which he called “completely unacceptable.”
Schoof said he had assured Netanyahu by phone that “the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.”
The horror was widely condemned by Jewish leaders – with some calling it “a new Kristallnacht,” referring to the “Night of Broken Glass” terror campaign committed by the Nazis.
“Once again, we are forced to witness that the world has failed to learn from the dark lessons of history as Jewish blood is once again shed with impunity,” Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the World Zionist Organization, said in a statement.
“I call, in the strongest and most unequivocal terms, on the leaders of the world: the responsibility for the safety of Jews in your countries is yours alone.”
Combat Antisemitism Movement CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa added, “Exactly 86 years after Kristallnacht, when Nazis, along with ordinary Germans hunted Jews through the streets of Europe, we see their ideological heirs rampaging through the streets of Amsterdam once again seeking to spill Jewish blood.
“Thousands of Islamists, who are today’s neo-Nazis in ideology and action, in a clearly premeditated and organized fashion, targeted Jews in what feels to many as a loud echo from history.”
Anti-Israel activists have claimed the Israeli fans were actually the first to engage in the violence.
Officials have said friction had been growing in the lead-up to before the match.
Ahead of the game, video showed large crowds of Israeli supporters chanting pro-Israel Defense Force messages and police pushing several anti-Israel protesters away from a Maccabi fan gathering in a square earlier in the day.
Antisemitism has skyrocketed globally since Palestinian Hamas terrorists carried out a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, leading to a wider and ongoing conflict in Gaza.
With Post wires
