Israeli Soccer Fans Injured in Amsterdam Attacks That Authorities Call Antisemitic

The authorities in Amsterdam on Friday were investigating bursts of violence tied to a soccer game between a Dutch club and an Israeli team, which Israeli and Dutch officials described as antisemitic attacks.

The police in Amsterdam said that 62 people had been arrested in connection with attacks in the city, which unfolded over several tense hours in multiple locations as people gathered in support of the Israeli team and others protested its arrival. Dutch officials said that attackers, some riding scooters, assaulted Israelis, and the Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands said that some had been kicked or beaten.

Most of those arrested were later released, the Amsterdam authorities said, and five Israelis who had been hospitalized with injuries were discharged. Some others sustained light injuries, they said. The Israeli airline El Al sent planes to bring Israeli citizens home from Amsterdam.

Street disturbances had been building since Wednesday night and early Thursday, hours before a soccer match between an Israeli club, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the Dutch club Ajax. The game went on without incident, but violence erupted in several parts of the city before and after.

The Amsterdam authorities said at a news conference that people had attacked Israeli fans and chanted anti-Israeli slogans, and that they were investigating whether the attacks were coordinated. They also said that some supporters of the Israeli team had taken a Palestinian flag down from a building. Videos posted to social media and verified by The New York Times show men taking down a Palestinian flag while others nearby hurled anti-Arab chants.

While the exact sequence of events remained unclear, the violence appeared to be the product of two combustible forces in Europe: the unrest that often accompanies gatherings of hard-core soccer fans and tensions over the yearlong Israeli military offensive in Gaza.