AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch police on Tuesday detained several people in Amsterdam defying a protest ban enforced after violent clashes between locals and Israeli soccer fans last week, and who were holding up white banners in front of city hall, a Reuters witness said.
Dutch news agency ANP reported six people had been detained. A police spokesperson could not immediately confirm this number.
Tensions remain high in Amsterdam since violence erupted before and after a soccer match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and local team Ajax on Thursday.
Police have said that hit-and-run actions were held against visiting Israeli fans Thursday night, adding that the fans on their part burned a Palestinian flag, used sticks, pipes, and rocks in clashes with opponents, as video footage verified by Reuters shows.
Reuters verified footage also shows the fans chanting anti-Arab slogans.
At least five people were injured in assaults that Dutch authorities and foreign leaders including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as antisemitic.
Following the violence, local authorities imposed a protest ban until Thursday morning.
On Monday evening, riot police arrested several people after a tram at a square in west Amsterdam caught fire, likely as a result of having fireworks thrown at it. No one was hurt, though the windows of the tram were shattered.
(Reporting by Esther Verkaik, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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