Amsterdam expects extra City Council meeting on Tuesday to debate attacks on Israelis

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said she expects to have a report detailing all of the facts about the violence surrounding the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv game by Monday evening or Tuesday morning. That would make it possible to hold an emergency debate about the attacks on Israeli football supporters on Tuesday afternoon, Halsema said Friday.

Five people were hospitalized, and as many as 30 others suffered minor injuries, police said. A total of 62 people were arrested in the immediate aftermath, and ten of them were still in custody Friday afternoon.

During the press conference, Halsema refused to step down over the riots and violence. She defended her actions while saying she has a "mandate" from the City Council to serve as mayor, though council members could test this by seeing if she would survive a vote of confidence. Halsema pledged that an independent investigation into security preparations would be quickly carried out. She made the promise to the leaders of the political parties represented on City Council prior to the press conference.

This is separate to the ongoing investigation into the violence. Halsema said that the city asked the NCTV, the national counterterrorism office, to assess if there was an added risk both because of the planned memorial of Kristallnacht, and Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The latter has led to frequent demonstrations in Amsterdam, including several which involved violent clashes with police officers.

"The NCTV confirmed again that there were no concrete threats regarding the supporters' group, the players and the match. They did ask us to take measures to ensure that it proceeded as calmly as possible, which we did," Halsema stated. There were rumors on Friday that Dutch intelligence services had been warned about the possibility of violence by the Israeli government, but Prime Minister Dick Schoof refused to comment on that when asked at a separate event.

Over 800 police officers were deployed on the streets of Amsterdam prior to the football match and during the violence after. The scaled up presence was also due to the commemoration in Amsterdam of Kristallnacht, the pogroms targeting Jews in Nazi Germany in November 1938. The deployment included 200 riot police officers.

Amsterdam Police Chief Peter Holla said that he was also "shocked" by the scale of violence despite the extensive preparations. "My shock lies mainly in the fact that one of the largest deployments that we have made in a year, as Amsterdam police with national assistance, could not prevent this violence," he said during a press conference with Halsema. Holla has been in his role for just over two months.

Many of the political parties, including coalition parties leading City Council, expressed shock and dismay over the violence.