AMSTERDAM (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, many dressed in red, marched in Amsterdam on Sunday in a mass demonstration aimed at pressuring the Dutch government to take more decisive action against Israel on Gaza.
The organizers of “Red Line” demonstrations in the Netherlands called for measures including tougher trade sanctions against Israel, officially declaring that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide and ending all arms sales to Israel.
The Dutch branch of Amnesty International, one of the organizers, said in an online post that more than 200,000 people had joined the march.
“What’s happening there is inhumane,” Mike van Dongen said as he walked among the huge crowd. He criticized the actions of the Dutch government. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re not doing anything,” he said. “They don’t dare to take serious action.”
As protesters marched down a normally busy Amsterdam street closed to traffic on Sunday, a man stood at a bus stop with a loudspeaker shouting: “Free Palestine, free!” » Many demonstrators echo his cry as they pass by.
Israel strongly rejects suggestions that it is committing genocide in Gaza as part of its military campaign that followed attacks by Hamas-led militants in southern Israel. October 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza.
More than 1,550 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli army since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began in October 2025, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, does not distinguish between civilians and militants, although it says women and children account for about half of the deaths.
The Gaza campaign has strained relations between the Netherlands and Israel. The Dutch foreign minister resigned last year after failing to secure new sanctions against Israel.
Since then, a new minority coalition government has taken power and introduced a ban on imports of products from Israeli settlements, which the Dutch government and most of the international community consider illegal, a move that has sparked a diplomatic row with Israel.
Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who participated in a march last year but was not present Sunday, defended his government’s actions during his weekly news conference Friday.
“Every day and every week we do what we can to alleviate the terrible situation there,” he said. He added that his administration is “exerting greater political and diplomatic pressure” on Israel to honor its Gaza agreements. At the same time, he said, his government is putting more pressure on Hamas and other organizations that continue to carry out “various operations that endanger the security of ordinary Israelis.”
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