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

Tensions had increased in the Dutch capital due to Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanoneven before Thursday night european league match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Amsterdam authorities banned a planned pro-Palestinian rally near the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on the way to the match.

Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot scoured the city looking for Israeli fanatics, punching and kicking them, then quickly fled to evade police, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said.

In the Telegram groups, he added, “there is talk about people who are going to hunt Jews. This is so shocking and so despicable that I still can’t understand it.”

According to authorities, police had to escort some fans back to hotels.

Ofek Ziv, a Maccabi fan from the Israeli city of Petah Tikva, said someone (he didn’t see who) threw a rock at him as he and a friend left the stadium. He received a blow to the head that caused slight bleeding. He said a group of Arab men began chasing him, before he and his friend got into a taxi and picked up other fans. They took refuge in a hotel.

“I’m very scared, it’s very striking. This shouldn’t happen to anyone, especially in Amsterdam. “Many friends were 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 several hostile men as they returned to their hotel after the game. Because the group was not wearing Maccabi t-shirts, “they didn’t recognize that we are Israelis… Nothing happened to us, but there was a lot of chaos there that we didn’t expect.”

Upon returning to Israel, he said he would return for more matches. “We are not afraid of anything, 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 20 to 30 people suffered minor injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects were arrested and 10 are still in custody, city prosecutor René de Beukelaer told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

As condemnations of the violence as anti-Semitic came from across Europe, the attacks shattered Amsterdam’s long-cherished vision of itself as a beacon of tolerance and refuge 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 to never see again in Amsterdam.”

Police said security will be beefed up at Jewish institutions in the city, which has a large Jewish community and was once home to Jews. Anne Frank, World War II journalist and his family while hiding from the Nazi occupiers.

The violence resonated intensely in Israel and throughout Europe. Israel’s foreign minister undertook an urgent trip to the Netherlands and the government initially ordered two planes to be sent to the Dutch capital to bring fans home. The prime minister’s office later said it would work to help citizens arrange commercial flights.

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

Maccabi general manager Ben Mansford spoke to reporters at Israel’s international airport as some fans returned. “A lot of people went to see a football game… to support Israel, to support the Star of David,” he said. For them to be attacked, “they are very sad moments for all of us given the last year we have had.”

It was unclear the extent of Thursday night’s attacks or where and when they took place. Tensions had been brewing for days.

A Palestinian flag was torn 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 Israeli team supporters could be seen on video chanting anti-Arab slogans as they made their way to the stadium, escorted by police.

“Let the IDF and (expletive) the Arabs win,” the fans chanted, using the acronym for the Israeli army, while shaking their fists. It also showed police pushing several 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 very few indications of that at the moment.”

Security concerns related to hosting matches against visiting Israeli teams led the Belgian football federation to refuse to host 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 played in European qualification for the 1982 World Cup and has been a member of European football body UEFA since 1994.

The violence in Amsterdam will no doubt lead to a review of security at upcoming matches involving Israeli teams. European football body UEFA announced already on Monday that Maccabi’s next Europa League match, scheduled in Istanbul on November 28 against Turkish team Besiktas, would be moved to a yet-to-be-decided neutral venue “after a decision of the 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, on the outskirts of the French capital, after assurances from police.

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

“We will be intransigent,” 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.