Police are examining metro video footage of football fan behaviour around the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv football match in November 2024.

The Dutch public prosecutor has announced that new footage has been found from metro stations. Shortly after violence that followed the match, the GVB transport operator announced that images from metros themselves were no longer available.

Two investigations around alleged misbehaviour by fans from Maccabi Tel Aviv were dropped in June due to lack of evidence, reported the Parool. One woman had made a police report alleging she had been attacked on a metro station at Amsterdam Central, hit, spat at and her hair pulled after she called “Free Palestine”.

Another woman had claimed she had been threatened while sitting with another woman wearing a headscarf. She alleged in her police report that supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv had shouted: “We will kill you all.”

Although video material was believed to have been wiped, the GVB recently discovered that old recording devices had not been destroyed and still held images. These are being held in a secure facility and examined by police. “This may have repercussions for incidents at metro stations that were reported,” said the public prosecution in a press release.

On the night of the football match, five supporters of the Israeli club were taken to hospital after being attacked in what Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema then described as “hit-and-run” assaults by “youths on scooters”.

The violence caused outrage in Israel and elsewhere, with Israel at one point saying it would send over planes to rescue its citizens.

In March, the public prosecution department said it had drawn up a list of 122 suspects who were involved in the trouble surrounding the Europa League football match on November 7. Palestinian refugee Mahmoud A was sentenced to six months in jail for public disorder for attacking an Israeli football fan this week.

Police have not said how many incidents there were but a more nuanced picture has emerged about inflammatory behaviour and violence from both visitors and locals.