AMSTERDAM (AP) — Israeli fans were attacked after a soccer match in Amsterdam by hordes of youths apparently angered by calls on social media to target Jews, Dutch authorities said Friday. Five people were treated for injuries at hospitals and dozens were arrested.

Tensions had risen in the Dutch capital Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanonjust before Thursday night Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Amsterdam authorities banned a planned pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the match.

Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot drove through the city looking for Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then quickly running away to evade police, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said.

In Telegram groups, she added, “there’s talk of people going Jew-hunting. It’s so shocking and so despicable that I still can’t get over it.”

Police had to escort some fans back to hotels, according to authorities.

Ofek Ziv, a Maccabi fan from the Israeli city of Petah Tikva, said someone – he did not see who – threw a rock at him as he and a friend left the stadium. He was hit in the head, causing slight bleeding. He said a group of Arab men started following him, before he and his friend got into a taxi, picking up other fans. They took shelter in a hotel.

“I’m very scared, it’s very striking. This should not happen to anyone, especially in Amsterdam. Many friends were hurt, injured, kidnapped, robbed and the police did not come to help us,” he said.

Another fan, Alyia Cohen, said he and his friends were approached by a number of hostile men when they returned to their hotel after the game. Because the group did not wear Maccabi shirts, “they didn’t recognize that we were Israelis… Nothing happened to us, but there was a big chaos there that we didn’t expect.”

Speaking when he arrived back in Israel, he said he would be back for more matches. “We fear nothing, ours is the people of Israel.”

Amsterdam police spokeswoman Sara Tillart said it was too early in the investigation to say whether anyone other than soccer fans were targeted.

Five people were treated at the hospital and released, while about 20 to 30 people suffered minor injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects have been arrested, with 10 still in custody, the city’s public prosecutor, René de Beukelaer, told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

With condemnation of the violence as anti-Semitic pouring in from across Europe, the attacks shattered Amsterdam’s long-cherished view of itself as a beacon of tolerance and a haven for persecuted religions, including the Sephardic Jews of Portugal and Spain centuries ago.

Halsema called the violence “an eruption of anti-Semitism that we hoped we would never see again in Amsterdam.”

Police said security would be beefed up at Jewish institutions in the city, which has a large Jewish community and was home to Jews. Anne Frank, World War II diarist and her family as they hid from the Nazi occupiers.

The violence reverberated intensely in Israel and across Europe. Israel’s foreign minister went on an urgent trip to the Netherlands, and the government initially ordered two planes sent to the Dutch capital to bring fans home. The Prime Minister’s Office later said it would work to help citizens organize commercial flights.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the “harsh images of the attack on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked” and that Netanyahu “views the horrifying incident with the utmost seriousness.” He called on the Dutch government to take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.

Maccabi CEO Ben Mansford spoke to the media at Israel’s international airport as some fans returned. “A lot of people went to watch a soccer match … to support Israel, to support the star of David,” he said. For them to be attacked, “these are very sad times for all of us, given the last year we’ve had.”

The extent of Thursday night’s attacks and where and when they occurred were not clear. Tensions had been running high for days.

A Palestinian flag was torn down from a building in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported, and authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium.

Before the match, large crowds of supporters of the Israeli team could be seen on video chanting anti-Arab slogans as they made their way to the stadium, escorted by police.

“Let the IDF win and the (expletive) Arabs,” chanted the fans, using the Israeli army’s acronym, as they shook their fists. It also showed police pushing some pro-Palestinian protesters away from a gathering of Maccabi fans in a square earlier in the day.

De Beukelaer said police were investigating “to what extent an organization is behind” the attacks on Israeli fans, adding: “I have too few clues for that at the moment.”

Security concerns over hosting matches against visiting Israeli teams led the Belgian football federation to refuse to stage a men’s Nations League match in September. That game against Israel was played in Hungary without fans in the stadium.

Israel was exiled from the Asian Football Confederation in the 1970s after Arab nations refused to play against it. Israel has played in European World Cup qualifiers since 1982 and has been a member of European football body UEFA since 1994.

The violence in Amsterdam will undoubtedly lead to a review of security at future matches involving Israeli teams. European football body UEFA already announced on Monday that Maccabi’s next Europa League match, scheduled in Istanbul on November 28 against Turkish side Besiktas, would be moved to a yet-to-be-determined neutral venue “following a decision by Turkish authorities. “

Meanwhile, Israel’s national team is scheduled to play France in Paris on November 14 in the Nations League. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Thursday that the match would go ahead as planned at the Stade de France, just outside the French capital, after police assurances.

“I think for a symbolic reason we must not give in, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans around the world had gathered at the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate “universal values ” of sports.

“We will be uncompromising,” he added. “To touch a fellow Jew is to touch the republic.”

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Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Lee Keath in Cairo, Graham Dunbar in Geneva and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.