Huge crowd piles pressure on Dutch government to seek an end to Israel’s campaign in Gaza

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital on Sunday to demand their government do more to halt Israel’s campaign in Gaza, in what organizers called the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades.

Human rights groups and aid agencies — including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders — estimated the peaceful crowd at more than 100,000 people, and the streets of The Hague were packed with the old, young and even some babies on their first protest.

“We hope this is a wake-up call for the government,” said teacher Roos Lingbeek, attending the march with her husband and their 12-week-old daughter, Dido, who slept in a carrier as her parents brandished a sign simply reading: “STOP.”

The march took the young family past the Peace Palace, headquarters of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, where last year judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.

As the protest wound its way past the court, canals and the seat of the Netherlands’ right-wing government, Israeli forces continued to pound northern Gaza, where they have launched new ground operations.

Airstrikes in the offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.

An Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.

David Prins, whose yarmulke was printed with the image of a watermelon — which shares the colors of the Palestinian flag — told The Associated Press he was attending the protest “to speak out against the atrocities.” The 64-year-old was standing across the street from the synagogue he attended growing up, which overlooks the field where the demonstration began.

Protesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the city center of The Hague, to symbolically create the red line they say the government has failed to set.

“We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” Marjon Rozema, of Amnesty International, told the AP.

Israel strongly denies that it is committing genocide or violating international law in Gaza.

Some unable to make the trek through the city sat along the route to cheer on the marchers. “It’s beyond time for the government to act,” Aletha Steijns told the AP, while holding crutches for a knee injury. She was joined by several friends in camping chairs on the sidewalk.

Dutch policy toward Israel is just one of many issues causing splits in the Netherlands’ fragile coalition government. Hard-right leader Geert Wilders is staunchly pro-Israel and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom holds the largest number of seats in the country’s parliament.

Last week, however, foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp of the minority center-right VVD party urged the European Union to review a trade agreement with Israel, arguing that its blockade of humanitarian aid violated international law. Wilders hit back, denouncing the call as an “affront to cabinet policy.”