PARIS — Israel and France squared off in a soccer match at Paris' Stade de France on Thursday night as hundreds of protesters gathered nearby amid heightened tensions in Europe over Israel’s deadly assault on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Thousands of police officers were deployed across Paris, seeking to avoid a repeat of last week’s violence in Amsterdam involving locals and Israeli fans.
In the stadium, just a trickle of fans turned out for the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes. There were minor scuffles in the stands and some booed the Israeli anthem, Reuters reported.
Soccer fans filed into the Stade de France amid a heavy police presence. The process appeared orderly, though some expressed nervousness.
Theo Petit, 23, who came out to support France, said he was invited to the game by a friend.
“We are a little stressed about coming here, but it’s a game, a football game,” said Petit, who is studying to become a dietitian. “We love football, so we decided together to not be frightened by the context of this match.”
Paris police confirmed to NBC News around 4,000 officers would be on duty, with 2,500 deployed to ensure security around the Stade de France, in the suburb of Saint-Denis just north of the capital, and 1,500 posted elsewhere across the city.
“It’s an exceptional measure, three to four times greater than what we usually mobilize,” Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez told RTL radio Wednesday, according to Reuters.
A number of volunteers with Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, or the Human Rights League, a French organization that aims to observe and defend human rights, were stationed outside the stadium to observe police forces’ handling of the event.
As the crowd of protesters began to swell at Aubervilliers, about a mile and half from the Stade de France, an image was circulating on social media of masked men in black holding bats. The photo was posted to an account, verified by NBC News, belonging to Betar, which describes itself as a Zionist activist movement, with several global chapters, including one in France.
"Guard duty," the original caption read. "we will remain in the streets of France." It said it would be at the game, followed by emojis of the Israeli flag, a flexed bicep, the Star of David and a crown.
By nightfall, several hundred protesters had gathered, some chanting, “Beirut, Gaza: Paris is here with you!”
One of the protesters, Irene Karalis, 22, a university student and activist, said she was referred to the game as “the match of shame.”
“We think that it's not possible to continue to live normally, to study normally, to work normally, when there's a genocide in Palestine right now,” she said.
“I’m against all forms of discrimination and racism, and I'm obviously against antisemitism,” Karalis added, referring to the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam that cast a shadow over the match. “And that's why I'm also against instrumentalization of antisemitism and against the assimilation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”
Nuñez said only French and Israeli flags would be allowed inside the stadium, effectively barring Palestinian flags.
French President Emmanuel Macron was expected to attend the match alongside predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, in what Macron's office described as a show of "fraternity and solidarity" after the events in Amsterdam.
Police said on X that they had also received authorization to use drones to survey crowds both Thursday and Friday, though they did not say exactly where they would be deployed. Meanwhile, the National Gendarmerie deployed dozens of patrol teams assigned to metro lines.
Low attendance at the UEFA Nations League game had been expected. Israel has warned its citizens against attending sporting events abroad.
The French organization Urgence Palestine, which organized a demonstration near Le Front Populaire metro station in Saint-Denis, said in Thursday on Instagram, "We don't play with genocide! No to the France-Israel match."
Ramy Shaath, a political activist and a co-founder of Urgence Palestine, told NBC News that demonstrators wanted to send a message that they would not allow the "whitewashing of Israeli crimes." He said they also wanted to call on soccer's governing bodies to ban Israel from participation.
The security presence was ramped up after the violence surrounding the match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax of Amsterdam put authorities across Europe on high alert.
Officials have said the violence was marked by incidents of people who "actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them" — in what Macron, as well as leaders in the Netherlands and Israel, denounced as antisemitic attacks — and violent and inflammatory actions by some of the Israeli team's supporters, including singing anti-Arab chants calling for "death to the Arabs."
Multiple demonstrations were held in Paris on Wednesday night.
They centered on a pro-Israel gala that anti-Arab, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had been expected to attend. Smotrich is known for his incendiary statements, including advocating for the resettlement of Gaza by Israelis once the war ends, suggesting Arabs and Jews use separate maternity wards and asserting that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Smotrich canceled his trip to France to speak at the gala, citing security concerns, but at least two demonstrations went ahead, drawing hundreds of protesters.
At one point during one of the demonstrations held by pro-Palestinian groups, tear gas appeared to be deployed against the crowd, as police in shields and riot gear pushed up against protesters. Organizers at another protest held by leftist Jewish groups condemning the gala told NBC News police shut down their rally.
Demonstrators at both events said they did not want to allow the normalization of Israel's actions in Gaza, where local officials say more than 43,000 people have been killed over the past year.
The United Nations said over the weekend that women and children accounted for around 70% of those who have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, in which Israeli officials say 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage.
“We won’t stop protesting,” said a demonstrator, Omar, 30, who declined to provide his last name, speaking during a demonstration Wednesday night in which protesters marched from Paris’ Saint-Lazare station to Place de la République.
“We are not afraid of the police,” he said.
