Israel kills 41 in Gaza as thousands rally in Europe

• At least five shot dead near aid distribution site run by GHF
• Israeli soldier killed in south Gaza
• Massive protest in The Hague calls for ‘end to genocide’

CAIRO: Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 41 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

An Israeli soldier was also killed in Gaza, the army confirmed on Sunday.

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor.

Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south.

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave, medics said.

In Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 11 people in a house. The rest were killed in separate airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip, they added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food.

The UN rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality principles.

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 300 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,600 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.

“These are not humanitarian aid, these are traps for the poor and the hungry under the watch of occupation planes,” said Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the health ministry.

Israeli soldier killed

The Israeli soldier killed in Gaza a day earlier was identified as Noam Shemesh, 21, from Jerusalem.

In a statement, the military said he “… fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip”.

About 430 soldiers have been killed since Israel’s ground operation in Gaza began on October 27, 2023.

Protests in Europe

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.

The protest followed similar pro-Palestine demonstrations across major European cities, including Brussels, Paris, Zurich and Madrid, throughout the week.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called “red line”.

With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.

One of the organising groups, Oxfam Novib, estimated 150,000 people participated in the march. Organisers urged the Dutch government — which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition — to do more to rein in Israel for its military offensive on the Palestinian territory.

Demonstrators on Sunday called for the caretaker government to speak out against what they said were ongoing violations of international law by Israel.

“More than 150,000 people here dressed in red —and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib.

“We demand action now from our government.”

Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: “It has to stop.

Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.“ “I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.

In response to the protests, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said the goal is to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible.

“To all those people in The Hague I say: we see you and we hear you.” “In the end, our goal is the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible,” he wrote in a post on X.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025