[8][9] In the run-up to the match, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were filmed pulling Palestinian flags from houses, making racist anti-Arab chants such as "Death to Arabs", assaulting people, and vandalising local property.

[17][8][18] The attacks on Israeli fans were condemned as antisemitic by Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema,[19] Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof,[20] King Willem-Alexander,[21] and several international leaders.

[4][5][41] In March, prior to a game against Olympiacos, a man who had been carrying a Palestinian flag was taken to hospital in Athens after an altercation with a group of Maccabi fans.

[43] Mossad agents joined the team on their trip to "provide maximum protection",[44][45] and Amsterdam police increased their presence in the city center the night before the match.

[43] Local authorities cited concerns over the potential for conflict in various areas,[46][11] as "distressing" incidents targeting minorities—including Jews, Muslims and Palestinians specifically—had occurred before.

"[12] Tensions rose that evening, when a group of 200 Maccabi supporters wandered through the city centre and taxi drivers shouted "free Palestine" when passing them.

[48] City officials met on the morning of the match to discuss whether to cancel the game due to the "aggression shown by Maccabi supporters and the reaction of the taxi drivers".

[46] Maccabi Fanatics ultras also convened in the city centre, in particular around Dam Square, displaying banners for Israeli soldiers and setting off illegal fireworks.

[63] A video captured after midnight by a Dutch photographer, Annet de Graaf, and verified by The New York Times, showed a group of Maccabi fans picking up pipes and boards from a construction site, then chasing and beating a man.

[66] Most of the people involved in the "Jew Hunt" were thought to have been taxi drivers and youths on scooters, who believed there were ex-IDF soldiers and Mossad agents among the Maccabi fans.

[66] In the nights following the attacks, people thought to be Jewish continued to be targeted, including being forced out of taxis and ordered to show their passports to check if they were Israeli.

[67][68] On 11 November, four days after the attacks, a tram in Amsterdam's '40-'45 Square caught fire, reportedly due to fireworks thrown at it that also shattered its windows.

[69] According to preliminary investigations, Amsterdam police considered that it was not clear there was a direct connection to the previous week's unrest, and some of the arrests were made separately from the tram incident.

[76][77] Amsterdam officials issued an emergency ordinance banning any demonstrations for three days after the overnight attacks, and giving Dutch police the authority to stop and search individuals.

[80] The organisations Erev Rav and the Stop Racism and Fascism Platform cancelled a local Kristallnacht commemoration due to the "violent" Maccabi supporters, describing the subsequent violence as "resistance against the hooligans" and saying they had no confidence in the authorities to guarantee the safety of the event.

Mayor Halsema said the incident "looks serious" and was being treated as a high priority investigation by the police and the prosecution service, and will also attempt to determine whether the violence was "in accordance with official instructions".

[85] The UK's Sky News and Israel's Channel 12 were criticised for editing reports and deleting social media posts referencing the anti-Arab behaviour of Israeli fans.

[87] Dutch photographer Annet de Graaf filmed Maccabi supporters attacking Amsterdammers,[13][88][89] but many media outlets initially misreported that the video showed an "antisemitic" mob beating Israelis.

In an email accidentally sent to Electronic Intifada by senior Times editor Charlie Stadtlander, the reporter, Christiaan Triebert, bemoaned the cancellation of the investigation and complained that the U.S. newspaper's coverage has distorted events, such as the Israeli attacks against locals filmed by De Graaf.

[97][98] Guardian columnist Owen Jones criticised media coverage of the events for failing to cover the Israeli supporters' behaviour in the run-up to the clashes, saying, "if you condemn racist fanatics literally relishing in the mass slaughter of children, then you will be branded a hateful bigot.

"[32] Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation expert and associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said that media outlets from The New York Times to the BBC had given a "ridiculously skewed" version of events and "uncritically embraced what looked like an Israeli government press release".

He said the attackers would be found and prosecuted,[46][20] and cancelled his attendance at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan to monitor the response to the unrest.

In a viral Instagram post, Jelle Zijlstra, a Jewish community organizer in Amsterdam, called for nuance as she condemned both the antisemitic attacks and the Maccabi "hooligans".

'"[107] Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema initially described the attackers as "antisemitic hit-and-run squads" and said the incident reminded her of pogroms against Jews in Europe.

[114][116][117] Jazie Veldhuyzen, an Amsterdam councillor and party chairman for De Vonk, said "Maccabi hooligans" initiated the violence when they attacked local homes, and that the city and the right-wing government were exploiting the incidents to persecute migrants.

[121][122] Netanyahu arranged for El Al, Israel's flag carrier, to run eight free rescue flights from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv, transporting 2,000 Israelis.

[124] Writing in Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy contrasted the Amsterdam attacks with the "daily pogroms in the West Bank" against Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

[126][127][2] The ministry called on the Dutch government to investigate those responsible for the unrest and to ensure the protection of Palestinians and Arabs, citing concerns over the presence of Israeli settlers and soldiers allegedly spreading "racist notions" across European cities.

[128][129] The Palestinian Football Association said they were "gravely concerned" about the incident, and condemned the anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia expressed by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

[131] Hamas senior spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said the Amsterdam unrest was a spontaneous response to Israel's actions in Gaza.