A diverse group of protesters, including children and their families, have gathered outside The Hague headquarters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to express their unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, calling for an immediate investigation into Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Participants in the protest rally, dubbed the “Children’s March”, set off from The Hague train station on Wednesday, chanting slogans such as “ICC, do your job,” “Free Palestine,” and “Ceasefire now” as they waved Palestinian flags.
The crowd further urged the ICC to fulfill its mandate and address the ongoing crisis in Gaza, while carrying placards with messages like “Justice for the 9,000 Palestinian children killed” and “Stop killing children.”
The demonstrators pointed out that the toll on children in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza is particularly devastating, with thousands of them killed and tens of thousands injured since the beginning of the offensive.
Bilal Riani, president of the Endulus Foundation and one of the protest organizers, said what is happening in Gaza is not merely a war but a genocide.
“The ICC must do its job and investigate the genocide. Those who constantly speak in the case of Ukraine remain silent when it comes to Palestine,” he said.
Larissa-Mae Hartkamp, a participant in the march, voiced concern about the Netherlands providing F-35 parts to Israel, stressing that the occupying regime should be seen as the aggressor, not the defender.
She also called on Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to “stop supporting genocide,” adding, “We marched to the ICC because we want a ceasefire, justice to be served, and the ICC to do its job.”
Hartkamp further underscored the importance of transparency and the need for the ICC to proceed based on facts, saying the alarming number of journalists who have lost their lives in the past 80 days is “an attempt to conceal the truth.”
The latest development came after the Government Media Office in Gaza announced that Israel has killed 8,800 children alongside 6,300 women since the beginning of its onslaught against Gaza in early October.
“The number of killed Palestinians who have been brought to the hospitals in the strip since the beginning of the war has reached 21,110,” it said.
“During 82 days of the comprehensive genocidal war, the Israeli army committed 1,779 massacres, resulting in 28,110 martyrs and missing individuals,” the media office added.
Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long violence against Palestinians.
The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
The Israeli regime’s war in Gaza has received widespread condemnation across the globe.
