Riot police in central Amsterdam intervened to break up a demonstration on Monday afternoon, after pro-Palestine campaigners refused to leave their location close to the city’s main railway station and go home.

A number of people were arrested but police have not yet said how many.

Demonstranten weggelopen naar Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, daar ontstaat opnieuw een confrontatie met de MEhttps://t.co/nrOC9mVnNY pic.twitter.com/g6c2GHbqNw

— AT5 (@AT5) October 7, 2024

Mayor Femke Halsema orded the demonstration be ended because of public order offences. Some demonstrators had set off fireworks and others had sought confrontation with the police.

Some protestors also attempted to break up a gathering in support of Israel on the Dam in the city centre, where arrests were also made.

Earlier in the day Halsema called on the city’s residents to support each other on the anniversary of the attacks by Hamas in Israel.

“Grief is not political. Give each other space,” Halsema said in a post on Instagram in which described October 7 as an “emotionally charged day, especially for Jewish Amsterdammers”.

But the mayor also defended the right of protesters to speak out against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which has led to the deaths of more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to estimates by Gaza’s health ministry.

Halsema and prime minister Dick Schoof will attend the official commemoration of the October 7 attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage, in Amsterdam later on Monday.

Sit-ins in support of Palestine are also being held at railway stations nationwide.

Some hostages have died in captivity and 117 have been released, but some 97 are still being held or are unaccounted for.