Amsterdam's streets turned red on Sunday as the "Red Line" campaign — a fixture of Dutch protest life for months now — drew a big turnout to roads barricaded against traffic, among them the stretch by the Van Gogh Museum. Palestinian flags flew above the crowd, and signs carried messages including "Not in my name", "Gaza is being starved" and "Stop the Genocide". "Free Palestine" and "Shame on you" rang out across the march, and demonstrators directed their demands at The Hague. Organisers want the Netherlands to impose stiffer trade sanctions on Israel, end arms sales and formally recognise Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocide.

The march lands at a strained moment in Dutch-Israeli relations, with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza at the centre of the dispute. Israel firmly denies committing genocide. Its position is that the military campaign was a response to the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

The offensive that followed has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left large parts of Gaza in ruins. Gaza's health ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,550 Palestinians since a ceasefire took hold in October 2025.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten took part in an earlier Red Line march but stayed away on Sunday. He has defended his government's handling of the war, describing it as a twin-track effort: ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Israel while pushing Hamas to honour its security commitments.

Source: euronews.com