Around 10 minutes after the game kicked off as scheduled at 8:45 p.m. local time, there was scuffle in the top section of the stand behind one of the goals, with some of those involved having Israeli flags draped over their backs. It was not clear what caused the altercation and security intervened after around one minute.
The match finished in a 0-0 draw with no further incidents at Stade de France. However, Israel's national anthem was whistled by some fans when the players lined up and Israel players were jeered at times when they got the ball.
Chants of “Israel, Israel” could he heard from visiting fans for several minutes before the final whistle.
Paris authorities have been on high alert following the violence in Amsterdam before and after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Dutch authorities said fans from both sides were involved in the unrest. The assaults on Maccabi fans sparked outrage and were widely condemned as antisemitic.
“What we learned from Amsterdam is that we need to be present in the public space including far away from the stadium," and in public transport, Nuñez said Thursday on French news broadcaster France Info.
A couple of hours before the game, a pro-Palestinian demonstration attracted several hundred people to a square in Saint-Denis to protest against the match taking place.
Meanwhile, the manager of a small hotel in northern Italy refused a reservation made by an Israeli couple, accusing Israeli people of being “responsible for genocide,” a Jewish organization in Venice reported on Thursday.
The couple had booked two nights for the beginning of November at the Hotel Garni Ongaro in Selva di Cadore, a mountain village surrounded by the Dolomites, using the Booking.com online reservation platform.
A day before their departure, they received a message from the hotel’s staff: “Good morning. We inform you that the Israeli people as those responsible for genocide are not welcome customers in our structure.”
“I feel infinite sadness for the ignorance shown by certain people,” said Dario Calimani, the president of the Jewish Community of Venice. “When you don’t agree with what Israel does, you spread hatred against all Israelis.”
The incident came as cases of antisemitism in Italy, including expressions of racism and discrimination against Jews, have been increasing over the past year amid the war in Gaza.
Last month, a mural depicting a survivor of last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel, was vandalized in Milan.
Incidents of antisemitism have increased to about 80 or 90 a week in the last year, from about 30 a week before, according to the Antisemitism Observatory in Milan.
Word of the hotel incident came on the same day that former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their relatives met at the Vatican with Pope Francis.
