Israel sends rescue planes to Amsterdam after attacks on football fans – Middle East crisis live

Reuters reports that the Israeli military said on Friday that all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel have been banned from going to the Netherlands until further notice.

Human rights organisations say they are gravely concerned that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping down to her underwear could be subjected to torture after she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital by the authorities.

Amnesty International said it had found evidence that the Iranian regime used electric shocks, torture, beatings and chemical substances on protesters and political prisoners taken to state-run psychiatric institutions after being called mentally unstable. It said the situation facing the young woman was “alarming”.

Video of the young woman, who has not been formally identified, walking around a university campus in Tehran in her underwear was widely circulated on social media last week before she was seen being arrested by police officers. She is believed to have been protesting at being physically assaulted by campus security guards at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran for failing to comply with the strict dress code imposed on all Iranian women.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) called the student’s transfer to an undisclosed psychiatric facility a “kidnapping”, saying the use of forced transfer of anti-regime protesters to mental health facilities was being increasingly used to silence dissent.

“Iranian authorities systematically use involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation as a tool to suppress dissent, branding protesters as mentally unstable to undermine their credibility,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.

“Transferring individuals who participate in peaceful protests to psychiatric hospitals represents not only an act of arbitrary detention but also constitutes a form of kidnapping. This practice is a blatantly unlawful move to discredit activists by labelling them mentally unstable.”

The UN human rights office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

The UN count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago.

The 8,119 victims verified by the UN rights office in that seven-month period is considerably lower than the toll of more than 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the full 13 months of conflict, reports Reuters. But the UN breakdown of the victims’ age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.

This finding indicates “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality,” the UN rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.

The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.

Overall, children represented 44% of the victims, with children aged five-nine representing the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including four.

According to Reuters, this broadly reflects the territory’s demographics, which the report said reflected an apparent failure to take precautions to avoid civilian losses.

It showed that in 88% of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli military’s use of weapons with an effect across a wide area, although it said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk said:

It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved.”

Israel did not immediately comment on the report’s findings, according to Reuters.

Israel’s military has said approximately one civilian in Gaza has been killed for every fighter, a ratio it blames on Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group uses civilian facilities. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned against launching an “instinctive” response to Israeli airstrikes on the Islamic republic last month, reports AFP.

Israeli warplanes struck military sites in Iran on 26 October in retaliation for a large Iranian missile attack on Israel at the start of the month.

“Israel aims to bring the conflict to Iran. We must act wisely to avoid its trap and not react instinctively,” the adviser, Ali Larijani, told state television late on Thursday, according to AFP.

Iran said it fired 200 missiles at Israel on 1 October in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike on Beirut and Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was in Tehran. After Israel hit back, it warned Iran against any counterattack, but the Iran has vowed to respond.

“Our actions and reactions are strategically defined, so we must avoid instinctive or emotional responses and remain entirely rational,” Larijani added.

The former parliament speaker also praised Nasrallah for accepting a ceasefire during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war rather than making an “emotional decision”.

On Sunday, Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said a potential ceasefire between Tehran’s allies and Israel could affect Iran’s response to the Israeli strikes.

Israeli presiden, Isaac Herzog, on Friday condemned clashes in Amsterdam after a Europa League football match, saying the “shocking images” of violence were reminiscent of the Hamas attack on 7 October last year, reports AFP.

“We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since October 7th, we had hoped never to see again: an antisemitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam, Netherlands,” Herzog said in a statement on X.

He added:

This is a serious incident, a warning sign for any country that wishes to uphold the values of freedom. I give my full support to the cooperation now taking place between the governments, and trust that the authorities in the Netherlands will act immediately and take all necessary measures to protect, locate, and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack, and to eradicate the violence against Jewish and Israeli citizens by all required means.”

Hezbollah said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with missiles on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.

AFP reports that the Iran-backed Lebanese group said it targeted the Stella Maris naval base, north west of Haifa, with a missile barrage, “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy”.

The group had on Thursday claimed another attack on the same area. In a separate statement, the group claimed that it had also targeted the Ramat David airbase, south east of Haifa, with missiles.

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned on Friday what he described as a premeditated attack on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam during a call with his Dutch counterpart Dick Schoof, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Prime minister Netanyahu stated that he views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost seriousness and requested increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands,” his office said.

AFP reports that clashes erupted after a Europa League football match in Amsterdam overnight, with Israel sending rescue planes for their citizens. The violence flared after the game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and home team Ajax, which won 5-0.

The Dutch prime minister denounced the “completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis”.

“I followed with horror the coverage from Amsterdam,” Schoof wrote on X, adding that he had spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Netanyahu, to assure him that “the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted”.

According to AFP, Dutch media AT5 said the clashes occurred around midnight. Social media platforms were flooded with unverified images purported to be of the violence, but confirmed details of the clashes were few.

AT5 said that numerous fights, as well as acts of vandalism, had occurred in the city centre. “A large number of mobile unit vehicles are present and reinforcements have also been called in,” it said.

The Israeli embassy in the US said “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game”.

In its post on social media platform X, the embassy blamed the incident on a “mob who targeted innocent Israelis”.

A Dutch police spokesperson told ANP news agency that 57 people had been arrested.

Hezbollah said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with missiles, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the group said it targeted the Stella Maris naval base, north west of Haifa, with a missile barrage, “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy”.

Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to Amsterdam after “a very violent incident” targeting Israelis citizens, his office said on Friday, after attacks linked to a football game were reported.

Israel’s national security ministry has also urged its citizens in the Dutch city to stay in their hotel rooms after the attacks, the prime minister’s office said in a second statement.

“Fans who went to see a football game, encountered antisemitism and were attacked with unimaginable cruelty just because of their Jewishness and Israeliness,” Israeli security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said in a post on X.

Video on social media showed crowds running through the streets and a man being beaten, reports Reuters.

The Dutch ministry of foreign affairs had no immediate comment on the statements by the Israeli government, according to the news agency.

More on that story in a moment. In other developments:

• The US state department’s spokesperson, Matthew Miller, has said the US would continue to pursue a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon until the end of President Biden’s term. Miller said: “We will continue to pursue an end to the war in Gaza, an end to the war in Lebanon, a surge of humanitarian assistance [to Gaza], and that is our duty to pursue those policies right up until noon on 20 January when the president-elect takes office.”

• People in Gaza have been pushed “beyond breaking point” with families, widows and children enduring “almost unparalleled suffering”, according to the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Jan Egeland visited Gaza this week and found “scene after scene of absolute despair”, with families torn apart and unable to bury relatives who had died.

• Israel’s ousted defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has reportedly said the army has achieved all its objectives in Gaza and that Netanyahu rejected a hostages-for-peace deal against the advice of his own security establishment. Gallant was speaking to hostages’ families on Thursday, two days after being sacked by Netanyahu, and reports of his remarks quickly surfaced in Israeli media.

• Donald Trump will as president give Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly opening the way for all-out war between Israel and Iran, the former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta predicted. “With regards to the Middle East, I think he’s basically going to give Netanyahu a blank check,” Panetta said of Trump, who won the presidential election this week and will take office again in January.

• Footage recorded from a UN vehicle has shown the scale of destruction in northern Gaza. The video, filmed during a UN drive-through on Wednesday, shows roads completely torn up and buildings reduced to rubble.

• Human rights organisations say they are gravely concerned that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping down to her underwear could be subjected to torture after she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital by the authorities. Amnesty International said the situation facing the young woman was “alarming”.