More than 60 arrests in Amsterdam after attacks on Israeli football fans – Middle East crisis live | Israel

Here is a summary of key developments so far today:

• Police in Amsterdam on Friday said five people had been taken to hospital and 62 arrests had been made as a result of clashes that erupted in the Dutch capital overnight after a Europa League football match between home team Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. “In several places in the city, supporters were attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks. Riot police had to intervene several times, protect Israeli supporters and escort them to hotels,” said Amsterdam officials.

• The clashes had begun on Wednesday, 24 hours before the match. Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said there had been “incidents on both sides” on Wednesday night. He added: “Maccabi supporters removed a flag from a facade on the Rokin and they destroyed a taxi. A Palestinian flag was set on fire on the Dam.”

• Despite a “sporting” atmosphere in the ground and a huge police presence, authorities were unable to stop the rapid attacks on football fans in several locations in Amsterdam, said police. Holla said the hit-and-run tactics of the rioters made it “exceptionally” difficult to prevent the attacks. He added that 800 officers had been deployed, a very large number for Amsterdam, adding: “We spent weeks preparing” for the match.

• Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned on Friday what he described as a “premeditated antisemitic attack” on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam during a call with his Dutch counterpart Dick Schoof. The Dutch prime minister denounced the “completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis”. Schoof said he had spoken with Netanyahu to assure him that “the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted”.

• Netanyahu ordered two planes be sent to the Netherlands to bring the Israeli fans home. The first plane took off from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv heading for Amsterdam on Friday. Israeli military said on Friday that all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel had been banned from going to the Netherlands until further notice. Israeli president, Isaac Herzog condemned the clashes, saying the “shocking images” of violence were reminiscent of the Hamas attack on 7 October last year.

• Israel’s foreign ministry said on Friday it had located all Israeli citizens who were unaccounted for after clashes broke out after a football match in Amsterdam last night. It came after reports that several Israelis were missing. Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said in a statement that he had requested the Dutch government’s assistance in ensuring Israeli citizens’ safe exit from their hotels to the airport.

• The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, on Friday announced tightened security measures in the city, including a temporary ban on demonstrations, stepped-up police deployments, and extra protection for key institutions.

• Halsema said: “What happened last night is not a protest. It has nothing to do with protest or demonstration,” in response to questions about the context of last night’s violence. Halsema said what happened in Amsterdam was a crime and there was “no excuse” for the trouble. She added that the clashes overnight were a terrible moment for her city: “It’s against everything we’re proud of in Amsterdam. I’m very ashamed of the behaviour that was shown last night. This is nothing like Amsterdam.”

• The UN called the violence “very troubling” while Germany foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said it was “terrible” and “deeply shameful”. European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday condemned attacks on fans of Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv and said she had discussed the matter with Schoof. Uefa and Ajax also released statements strongly condemning the violence.

• Unverified video on social media purportedly filmed on Thursday appeared to show some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans chanting in Hebrew: “Finish the Arabs! We’re going to win!” Another video on social media showed crowds running through the streets and a man being beaten, reported Reuters.

• Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he hoped the US president-elect, Donald Trump, will tell Israel to “stop” its war efforts, suggesting a good start would be halting US arms support to Israel. “Trump has made promises to end conflicts … We want that promise to be fulfilled and for Israel to be told to ‘stop’,” Erdoğantold reporters on a return flight from Budapest, according to an official readout.

• The UN human rights office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. The UN count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago. Israel did not immediately comment on the report’s findings, according to Reuters.

• Lebanon state media said the Israeli army on Friday detonated explosives planted inside houses in three border villages that have been battered by the Israel-Hezbollah war. “Since this morning, the Israeli enemy’s army has been carrying out bombing operations inside the villages of Yaroun, Aitaroun and Maroun al-Ras in the Bint Jbeil area, with the aim of destroying residential homes there,” the official National News Agency said.

• An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned against launching an “instinctive” response to Israeli airstrikes on the Islamic republic last month.“Israel aims to bring the conflict to Iran. We must act wisely to avoid its trap and not react instinctively,” the adviser, Ali Larijani, told state television late on Thursday.

• Yemen’s Houthis targeted Israel’s southern Nevatim airbase with a hypersonic ballistic rocket called “Palestine 2”. The group also downed a US MQ-9 Reaper in the airspace of the Yemeni province of al-Jawf early on Friday, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said.

• People in Gaza have been pushed “beyond breaking point” with families, widows and children enduring “almost unparalleled suffering”, according to the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Jan Egeland visited Gaza this week and found “scene after scene of absolute despair”, with families torn apart and unable to bury relatives who had died. He said that Israel, with western-supplied arms, had “rendered the densely populated area uninhabitable”.

• Hezbollah said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with missiles on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours. The group said it targeted the Stella Maris naval base, north west of Haifa, with a missile barrage, “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy”. In a separate statement, the group claimed on Thursday that it had also targeted the Ramat David airbase, south east of Haifa, with missiles.

• At least 43,508 Palestinians have been killed and 102,684 have been injured by the Israeli offensive in Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Friday. The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, it said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and non-civilian deaths.

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards killed four more militants during an operation in the country’s south-east region where jihadists killed 10 police last month, state media said on Friday. The deaths were part of an “ongoing operation” in Sistan-Balochistan province, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Gen Ahmad Shafaei said, adding that a soldier was also killed, according to the official IRNA news agency.

• Human rights organisations say they are gravely concerned that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping down to her underwear could be subjected to torture after she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital by the authorities. Amnesty International said it had found evidence that the Iranian regime used electric shocks, torture, beatings and chemical substances on protesters and political prisoners taken to state-run psychiatric institutions after being called mentally unstable. It said the situation facing the young woman was “alarming”.

Despite a “sporting” atmosphere in the ground and a huge police presence, authorities were unable to stop the rapid attacks on football fans in several locations in Amsterdam, reports AFP.

Officers made 62 arrests in total but Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said the hit-and-run tactics of the rioters made it “exceptionally” difficult to prevent the attacks.

He said that 800 officers had been deployed, a very large number for Amsterdam, adding: “We spent weeks preparing” for the match.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, on Friday announced tightened security measures in the city, including a temporary ban on demonstrations, stepped-up police deployments, and extra protection for key institutions.

Tensions were already running high, with “incidents on both sides” on Wednesday, 24 hours before the match, according to Holla.

The US state department’s spokesperson, Matthew Miller, has said the US would continue to pursue a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon until the end of President Joe Biden’s term.

Miller said:

We will continue to pursue an end to the war in Gaza, an end to the war in Lebanon, a surge of humanitarian assistance [to Gaza], and that is our duty to pursue those policies right up until noon on 20 January when the president-elect takes office.”

‘Incidents on both sides’ 24 hours before match, Amsterdam police say

Houthis say they targeted Israeli air base with hypersonic ballistic rocket

Israel’s foreign ministry said on Friday it had located all Israeli citizens who were unaccounted for after clashes broke out after a football match in Amsterdam last night, reports AFP.

“All the Israelis who were out of contact in Amsterdam have been located,” the ministry said in a statement, after reports that several Israelis were missing since the violence erupted overnight.

At least 43,508 Palestinians killed in Israeli offensive since 7 Oct 2023, says health ministry

Ajax, who played Maccabi Tel Aviv last night in the Europa League, have released a brief statement condemning the violence in Amsterdam:

After a sporting football match with a good atmosphere in our stadium – for which we thank all parties involved for the good cooperation – we were horrified to learn what happened in the centre of Amsterdam last night.

We strongly condemn this violence.”

The Times of Israel reports that all Israelis in Amsterdam have now been reached.

Halsema says, “what happened last night is not a protest. It has nothing to do with protest or demonstration,” in response to questions about the context of last night’s violence.

Halsema says what happened was a crime and there is “no excuse” for the trouble last night.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, says the clashes overnight were a terrible moment for her city.

“It’s against everything we’re proud of in Amsterdam. I’m very ashamed of the behaviour that was shown last night. This is nothing like Amsterdam,” she says.