Brief altercation between fans mars France-Israel soccer match despite heavy security

PARIS (AP) — There was a brief altercation between a small number of fans early into Thursday's Nations League soccer game between France and Israel despite heavy security inside the stadium, a week after violence erupted in Amsterdam in connection with an Israeli club team’s visit.

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.

French police chief Laurent Nuñez said 4,000 police officers and security staff were deployed in and around the stadium, with another 1,500 police on public transport.

Several buses carrying Israel fans arrived under police escort and some were waving flags inside the stadium. Only about 16,600 of 80,000 tickets were sold, with around 150 Israel supporters present.

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.

Israel's team bus arrived at the stadium shortly after 7 p.m. local time. Around one hour before kickoff, Nuñez visited the stadium’s video surveillance facilities along with French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

Three months after hosting the Olympic closing ceremony, the atmosphere has gone from festive to fearful. French President Emmanuel Macron and Retailleau was present, along with former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

“We will not give in to antisemitism, anywhere. And violence, including in the French Republic, will never prevail, nor will intimidation,” Macron told BFM TV channel before the game.

The low number of visiting fans on Thursday came after Israel’s National Security Council warned citizens abroad to avoid sports and cultural events, specifically Thursday's match.

Retailleau told French news channel TF1 earlier this week that exceptional measures were justified, despite no official threat being received.

The elite tactical unit of the French National Police, known as RAID, was in the stadium and some police in plain clothes mingled with fans. There was also heavy surveillance within Paris, including at Jewish places of worship and schools.

“It is out of the question that we take the risk of seeing a repeat of the dramatic events, of the manhunt, that we saw in Amsterdam,” Retailleau said, adding that postponing or moving the game elsewhere was ruled out.

In Amsterdam, a number of Maccabi fans attacked a cab and chanted anti-Arab slogans while some men carried out “hit and run” attacks on people they thought were Jews, according to city Mayor Femke Halsema.

After the match, parts of a large group of Maccabi supporters armed with sticks ran around “destroying things,” a 12-page report on the violence issued by Amsterdam authorities said.

There were also “rioters, moving in small groups, by foot, scooter or car, quickly attacking Maccabi fans before disappearing,” it said.

Protests erupted in Paris on Wednesday night against a controversial gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel.

Nine years ago, Stade de France was one of several locations during the Nov. 13 terror attacks in which 130 people died. France was playing Germany that night when two explosions happened outside the stadium.

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France's Randal Kolo Muani, left, and Israel's Mohammad Abu Fani compete for the ball during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Sea de de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron, centre, and Former French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy, right, and Francois Hollande wait for the start of the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Security personnel detain a person as fans argue on stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Fans argue on stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Fans argue on stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Fans argue on stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A riot police officer stands outside the Stade de France stadium ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel , Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Spectators arrive before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A woman adjusts an Israeli flag before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Police officers watch supporters arriving ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel outside the Stade de France stadium, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Israeli supporters display their national flag before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Men wave French and Israeli flags before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Police check a man covered with an Israeli flag next to the Stade de France before the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel, in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Police officers take position ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel outside the Stade de France stadium, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Israeli supporters arrive at the Stade de France stadium ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel , Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Demonstrators attend a rally in support of the Palestinian people, ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Demonstrators attend a rally in support of the Palestinian people, ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Demonstrators attend a rally in support of the Palestinian people, ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A soccer ball and a spotter are pictured during a rally in support of the Palestinian people, ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Police officers patrol in front of the stadium ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel outside the Stade de France stadium, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A mounted police officer patrols past the stadium ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel outside the Stade de France stadium, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Police officers patrol in front of the stadium ahead of the Nations League soccer match France against Israel outside the Stade de France stadium, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Protesters take part in a rally against the "Israel is Forever" gala organized by far-right Franco-Israeli figures, in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League 2025 soccer match between France and Israel. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

FILE - Police officers stand guard ahead the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Denmark at the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris, France, Friday, June 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state's top prison officials said they aren't going to release the document to the public.

The Tennessee Department of Correction last week told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the AP's request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.

The decision to maintain secrecy differs from how the state has handled similar requests in the past, but mirrors efforts across the U.S. to suppress public access surrounding executions, especially after anti-death penalty activists used records to expose problems.

Here's what to know:

The protocol is typically a detailed set of procedures describing how the state executes death row inmates. Tennessee had been operating under a 2018 protocol that included directions on selecting execution team staff and the training they should undergo. It explained how lethal injection drugs should be procured, stored and administered. It gave instructions on the inmate's housing, diet and visitation in the days leading up to execution. It provided directions on how to choose media witnesses.

For lethal injection, the 2018 protocol required a series of three drugs administered in sequence.

The new version unveiled last week requires only a single dose of pentobarbital. But that is all that is known about the revised protocol.

In an email sent Monday, Tennessee correction spokesperson Kayla Hackney told the AP the “protocol is not a public record" and cited a Tennessee statute that makes the identities of the people carrying out executions confidential.

However, that same statute says the existence of confidential information in a record is not a reason to deny access to it, noting that the confidential information should be redacted.

In 2018, Tennessee's correction agency provided a redacted copy of the protocol to an AP reporter over email.

In 2007, a previous version of the protocol was treated as a public record and provided to the AP after former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, announced a surprise halt to executions. A reporter's review of that 100-page “Manual of Execution” found a jumble of conflicting instructions that mixed new lethal-injection instructions with those for electrocution.

Executions have been on hold in Tennessee since 2022, when the state admitted it had not been following the 2018 protocol. Among other things, the Correction Department was not consistently testing the execution drugs for potency and purity.

An independent review of the state’s lethal injection practice later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed since 2018 had been fully tested. Later, the state Attorney General’s Office conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs “incorrectly testified” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.

Executions in the U.S. have remained at historic lows for years, but the small group of states still carrying out the death penalty have only increased the secrecy surrounding the procedures, particularly over how and where the state secures the drugs used for lethal injections.

Many states argue that secrecy is critical to protect the safety of those involved in the execution process. Yet in a 2018 report, the Washington-D.C.-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center found that this argument often led to these states refusing to provide information about the qualifications of their execution teams and some courts have criticized such arguments for lack of evidence that more public disclosure would result in threats against prison officials.

Kelley Henry, chief of the federal public defender’s habeas unit that represents many of Tennessee’s death row inmates, described the state's refusal to release the new protocol, given that background, as “mystifying."

“The secrecy, which cloaked the former execution protocol, created a culture of incompetence and lack of accountability,” she said in an email.

FILE - Ricky Bell, warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, gives a tour of the prison's execution chamber in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 13, 1999. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)