Aid organizations push Dutch government to fight for ceasefire in Gaza Strip

Dutch aid organizations active in the Gaza Strip are pleading with the government to declare itself in favor of a ceasefire. They will meet with outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has so far only pleaded for “humanitarian pauses” for aid to the Palestinian people, about the matter on Friday. If the government does not help push for a ceasefire, the aid organizations may no longer accept money for Gaza from it, they told NOS.

The aid organizations involved are Save the Children, Care, War Child, Oxfam Novib, and the umbrella Dutch Relief Alliance. They have been pushing to meet with Rutte for some time, according to the broadcaster.

Pim Kraan, director of Save the Children, called it “disgraceful” that the Netherlands abstained from the UN Security Council vote on a resolution for a ceasefire on Friday. “We ask that the government unconditionally and unequivocally support international law,” he said to NOS. The UN resolution concerns “the most basic principles of international aid,” he said.

According to Rutte, the Netherlands did not support the resolution because it did not mention Israel’s right to self-defense. “If Israel does not eliminate the threat from Hamas, that will be the end of Israel,” Rutte said.

Kraan stressed that “an anti-terrorist operation” to eliminate Hamas does not give Isreal legitimacy to “exceed all limits of the laws of war.” The Netherlands is picking and choosing where international law applies with its unconditional support for Israel, and that is putting the country’s credibility at risk, Kraan said.

The UN resolution passed without the Netherlands' support, so declaring support now may not mean anything concretely. However, according to the aid organizations, a call for a ceasefire is crucial in their aid efforts. Rutte’s pleas for “humanitarian pauses” are not enough, the aid organizations reported. They can’t work in “pauses,” Oxfam Novib director Michiel Servaes previously said.

“You cannot deliver aid safely and at scale when bombs are falling around you,” Servaes now told NOS. “The Dutch Cabinet must be aware that if it gives us money and asks us to send our people to the streets, its responsibility does not stop with giving money. It is also partly responsible for our assistance. It puts us in an impossible position where we don’t have backing.”

Kraan agrees. “You can’t throw aid over the fence during a lull in the fighting and expect everything to be fine. The infrastructure in Gaza is destroyed. We must be able to bring in massive numbers of personnel. They need aid supplies, field hospitals, psychologists, and nurses to make a difference. This is only possible if our own government stands for principles that must protect our people.”

It seems unlikely that there will be a ceasefire soon. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ​​Netanyahu again said that calling for a ceasefire is tantamount to calling on Israel to surrender to Hamas. “That will not happen.” He compared the Hamas attack on October 7 to the 9/11 attacks in the United States and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

And while Rutte told parliament that the matter isn’t black and white and denied that the government supports Israel unconditionally, in practice, the Dutch government has largely supported Israel’s stance, always stressing its right to defend itself.

On Monday, the death toll in the Gaza Strip stood at over 8,000 people, mostly children and women, according to news wire AP. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack.

Asked about the high number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said there is a difference between the “intentional killing of innocent people” and the “unintended casualties that accompany any legitimate war.”