Israel to Collect Soccer Fans from Amsterdam after 5 Injured

In this image taken from video, police escort Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to the metro, after pro-Palestinian supporters marched near the soccer stadium, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)
In this image taken from video, police escort Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to the metro, after pro-Palestinian supporters marched near the soccer stadium, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)
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Israel to Collect Soccer Fans from Amsterdam after 5 Injured

In this image taken from video, police escort Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to the metro, after pro-Palestinian supporters marched near the soccer stadium, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)
In this image taken from video, police escort Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to the metro, after pro-Palestinian supporters marched near the soccer stadium, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)

Israel was sending two commercial planes to the Netherlands on Friday to repatriate hundreds of Israeli soccer fans after overnight attacks in the streets of Amsterdam that officials described as antisemitic.
Videos on social media showed riot police intervening in clashes, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were "attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks" and that riot police intervened to protect them and escort them to hotels. At least five people were treated in hospital, she said.
Security measures were increased in the city, where hundreds gathered on Thursday to remember Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews across Germany on Nov. 9-10, 1938.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Hamas group on Oct. 7, 2023, with many Jewish organizations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the order to send planes was taken after "a very violent incident" targeting Israeli citizens after the match between Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club.
"This is a serious incident, a warning sign for any country that wishes to uphold the values of freedom," it said.
A video verified by Reuters showed a group of men running near Amsterdam central station, chasing and assaulting other men, as police sirens sounded.
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".

Police said there had been incidents before the game, for which roughly 3,000 Maccabi supporters travelled to Amsterdam.
The Israeli embassy in The Hague said mobs had chanted anti-Israel slogans and shared videos of their violence on social media, "kicking, beating, even running over Israeli citizens".

Police said 62 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, even though the city had forbidden a protest there.

They said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5-0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city center.

The Israeli airlines El Al and Arkia said two rescue flights were on the way to Amsterdam.



Manchester Bombing Survivors Awarded Damages for Harassment by Conspiracy Theorist

Martin Hibbert, who was paralysed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, speaks to media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the trial of his lawsuit against Richard D. Hall for alleged harassment, in London, Britain July 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin/File Photo
Martin Hibbert, who was paralysed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, speaks to media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the trial of his lawsuit against Richard D. Hall for alleged harassment, in London, Britain July 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin/File Photo
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Manchester Bombing Survivors Awarded Damages for Harassment by Conspiracy Theorist

Martin Hibbert, who was paralysed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, speaks to media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the trial of his lawsuit against Richard D. Hall for alleged harassment, in London, Britain July 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin/File Photo
Martin Hibbert, who was paralysed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, speaks to media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the trial of his lawsuit against Richard D. Hall for alleged harassment, in London, Britain July 25, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin/File Photo

Two survivors of a bombing that killed 22 people at the close of an Ariana Grande concert seven years ago were on Friday awarded 45,000 pounds ($58,184) in damages after successfully suing a conspiracy theorist who claimed the attack was staged.

Martin Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down and his daughter Eve, then 14, suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the bombing at Manchester Arena in northern England in 2017, Reuters reported.

They sued Richard Hall – a self-styled journalist who claimed without evidence that the attack was orchestrated by British government agencies – for harassment.

Their case bears some similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

Judge Karen Steyn ruled last month that Hall's conduct in publishing a book and videos about the Manchester Arena bombing and filming Eve Hibbert and her mother outside their house in 2019 amounted to harassment.

The judge awarded Martin and Eve Hibbert a total of 45,000 pounds following a further hearing on Friday, British media reported.