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Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague and in Brussels on Sunday to demand more action from their governments against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.In France on Saturday, thousands of other people joined similar protests, as part of a weekend mobilisation around the world against the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory.Some 150,000 people participated in the march in the Hague, according to organisers.In Brussels, where protesters were also calling for action from the EU, turnout was estimated at 110,000 by organisers and 75,000 by police.Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstrations, which were aimed at creating a so-called “red line” on the issue.With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators in the Dutch city turned a central park into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon before a march towards the International Court of Justice.Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something”, “Stop Dutch complicity”, and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die”.- Protesters condemn ‘genocide’ -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.”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, a Dutch branch of the international aid group.”We demand action now from our government,” added Servaes.Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “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.”In Brussels, many families were seen taking part, with the crowd yelling “Free free Palestine!” and aiming invective at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.A large sign noted that Netanyahu was “Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity”, referring to an ICJ warrant out against him.In Paris on Sunday, meanwhile, a dozen protesters began a march to Brussels to demand EU sanctions on Israel.The group, which includes a French actress, Corinne Masiero, wants the European Union “to hear the voice of civil society reminding it of its duties”, said Nathalie Tehio, head of the NGO Human Rights League.The marchers want EU officials to meet with them on June 23, when a regular meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers is to be held.The Gaza war was sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas.That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.The militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 54 are still thought to be held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.The United Nations considers the figures reliable.The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.Israel strongly rejects the accusations.

Israel unleashed a punishing barrage of strikes across Iran Sunday, hitting targets from the west to Tehran and as far east as Mashhad, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make the country pay a “heavy price” for killing civilians.With no let-up in sight, Iran said it would begin opening mosques, metro stations and schools to serve as makeshift bomb shelters for civilians, as Israel kept up its withering blows.After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marked the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.As Israel targeted sites across the Islamic republic Sunday, Iran responded with barrages of missiles, with residents told to seek shelter as booms were heard over Jerusalem, and aerial defence systems reportedly activated in Tehran.Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out two days ago, with Netanyahu on Sunday slamming Iran for allegedly targeting civilians.”Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,” he said during a visit to the site of a missile strike on a residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.The remarks came hours after Iranian missile fire targeting Israel killed at least 10 people overnight, according to authorities, pushing the death toll up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes Friday, with 380 reported injured.Iranian state television, meanwhile, reported at least five people killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in downtown Iran, adding the toll could rise as the strike was in a densely populated area.Local media citing Iran’s health ministry had reported at least 128 people killed in Israeli attacks from Friday to Saturday, including women and children, with 900 more injured.On Sunday, Israel’s military said its air force hit Mashhad airport in Iran’s far east, making it the longest-range strike of the conflict, with the target “approximately 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) from Israel”.Netanyahu also strongly suggested to Fox News that Israel had killed Iran’s intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi, saying it had recently “got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran” as its jets carried out raids over the capital.- ‘Make a deal’ -A heavy cloud of smoke hung above Tehran after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots. Local media also reported an Israeli strike on the police headquarters in the city centre.The Israeli military said its air force had hit “more than 80” targets in the capital overnight.Long lines snaked around gas stations as most businesses remained closed, while the head of Tehran’s traffic police told the IRNA news agency that “heavy traffic was reported at the capital’s exit points”.Some residents, however, were determined to stay put. “It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city,” Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.  US President Donald Trump said Washington “had nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign, which was launched early Friday and has hit key military and nuclear sites.But Trump also threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked American interests, later urging the two foes to “make a deal”.Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi nonetheless said Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.Israeli police said six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of an overnight missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.First responders wearing helmets and headlamps picked through the bombed-out building as dawn broke.”There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.”It was a miracle we survived.”In northern Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women.- ‘Red line’ -Early Sunday, a series of blasts rattled Tehran.Israel said its forces had struck the defence ministry headquarters in Tehran, where Iranian news agency Tasnim reported damage.The Israeli military also said it had struck nuclear sites, including the secretive Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), fuel tankers and other targets.Iranian media later said that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.Israel, in turn, said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence. On Sunday, the Israeli military warned Iranians to evacuate areas near weapons facilities nationwide.”The Zionist regime crossed a new red line in international law” by “attacking nuclear facilities”, Araghchi told foreign diplomats, according to state TV.”If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added.Iran scrapped nuclear talks with the US planned for Sunday, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they had struck sites used by Israeli warplanes for refuelling.burs/ds/smw

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.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 particpated in the march. Dutch police generally do not give estimates of demonstration turnouts.Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something”, “Stop Dutch complicity”, and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die”.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.”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,” added Servaes.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.A previous protest in The Hague on May 18 drew more than 100,000 people, according to organisers, who described it as the country’s largest demonstration in 20 years.Police also did not give an estimate for that gathering.- ‘Suffering in Gaza’ -Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “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.”The Gaza war was sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas.That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.The militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 54 are still thought to be held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.The United Nations considers the figures reliable.The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.Israel strongly rejects the accusations.

Israel’s unprecedented strikes on Iran, which have killed top military leaders and nuclear scientists, required years of meticulous intelligence gathering and infiltration, experts say.Israel said it hit hundreds of targets on Friday alone, and has since continued its attacks, striking a defence facility and fuel depots on Sunday.The fiercest-ever exchange of fire between the arch foes came in the midst of ongoing talks between Tehran and Washington seeking to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.”Israel has been following the nuclear programme for 15 years,” Israeli analyst Michael Horowitz told AFP.”The strikes we see are the result of years of intelligence gathering and infiltration of the Islamic republic.”Israel has previously carried out more limited attacks against Iranian military sites, including in October last year.”It seems that this week’s operation had been in preparation for months, with an acceleration after the operation last year significantly weakened Iranian air defences,” Horowitz said.The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon.Tehran denies that, but has gradually broken away from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, which the United States withdrew from during President Donald Trump’s first term.The landmark accord had provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme.- ‘Impressive’ precision -Israel is long believed to have carried out sabotage operations inside Iran through its Mossad espionage agency, but the attacks that started on Friday are by far the broadest in scope.The campaign has shown Israel to be capable of precisely locating and taking out high-ranking Iranian officials and nuclear scientists.A European security source said the strikes showed “an impressive degree of precision and mastery”.Israel says it has killed 20 military and security targets, including the armed forces’ chief of staff and the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as well as nine nuclear scientists.Danny Citrinowicz, of the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said the ability to take out high-ranking officials showed “intelligence, but also operational superiority of Israel over Iran”.”It’s highly connected to the ability to collect information, intelligence in Iran for years, excellent intelligence that actually allows you to detect where they’re living, the seniors, also the nuclear scientists,” he told AFP.The latest targeted strikes come after Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in a Tehran guesthouse in July last year.Haniyeh had been in town for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and was reportedly killed by an explosive device that Israeli operatives had placed in the guesthouse weeks before.Analysts at the time saw the attack as a major intelligence failure by Iran.But “still Iran didn’t learn and didn’t have the ability to lock the holes in their system”, said Citrinowicz.- Smuggled drones -News site Axios reported that Mossad agents inside Iran helped prepare Friday’s strikes, pre-positioning weapon systems near air defence targets, including by hiding them inside vehicles, and launching them when the attack started.An Israeli intelligence official told Axios that Mossad had “established an attack drone base inside Iran with drones that were smuggled in long before the operation”.A former Israeli intelligence official told The Atlantic that “Iranians opposed to the regime make for a ready recruiting pool”, and that “Iranians working for Israel were involved in efforts to build a drone base inside the country”.Alain Chouet, the former number three in the French intelligence, said he was convinced Israel had “half a dozen cells capable of acting at any moment” inside Iran.Iran regularly executes people it accuses of spying for Israel.It is unclear what role, if any, Israel’s key military and diplomatic ally the United States had in the latest strikes.Before the attack early on Friday, Trump publicly urged Israel to allow time for diplomacy, as a sixth round of US-Iranian nuclear talks were set to be held in Oman at the weekend.The US president on Sunday said Washington “had nothing to do” with ally Israel’s campaign.But Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said Tehran had “solid proof of the support of the American forces and American bases in the region” for the attacks.And Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday his country was acting with “the clear support of the president of the United States”.

Israel pressed its bombardment campaign on Iran on Sunday, striking a defence facility and fuel depots as the two arch foes kept up their most intense confrontation in history.It came after Iranian missile fire targeting Israel killed at least 10 people overnight, according to authorities, pushing the death toll up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes Friday.In Tehran, a heavy cloud of smoke hung above the city after Israeli aircraft hit two fuel depots. For days, Iranians have formed long queues at petrol stations, fearing shortages.Iranian media later said Israel attacked a facility affiliated with the defence ministry in the central city of Isfahan, reporting “possible damage”.The Israeli military said its air force had targeted “more than 80” positions in Iran’s capital overnight. Following the strikes, US President Donald Trump said Washington “had nothing to do” with ally Israel’s intense bombardment campaign that was launched early Friday, hitting key military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas.But Trump also threatened to launch “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacks American interests, saying on his Truth Social platform that “we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi nonetheless said that Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.Israeli police said six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of an overnight missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.First responders wearing helmets and headlamps picked through the bombed-out building as dawn broke, with police saying at least seven people were missing.”There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.”It was a miracle we survived.”In northern Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women.Israeli authorities have reported a total toll of 13 dead and 380 injured in the country since Friday.Iran’s UN ambassador said 78 people were killed and 320 wounded in Friday’s first wave of Israeli strikes.Iranian authorities have not provided an updated toll as of Sunday, but Tehran said Israel has killed several top military commanders and nuclear scientists.- ‘Red line’ – After decades of enmity and conflict by proxy, it is the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a prolonged conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.In Iran’s capital early Sunday, AFP journalists heard a series of blasts.The head of Tehran’s traffic police Ahmad Karami told IRNA news agency “heavy traffic was reported at the capital’s exit points”.Israel said its forces had struck the defence ministry headquarters in Tehran, where Iranian news agency Tasnim reported damage.The Israeli military also said it had struck nuclear sites, including the secretive Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), fuel tankers and other targets.The Iranian oil ministry said Israel targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area.An AFP journalist saw a depot at Shahran, northwest of the capital, on fire.Iranian media later said that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to hit “every target of the ayatollah regime”, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of “a more severe and powerful response”.On Sunday, the Israeli military warned Iranians to evacuate areas near weapons facilities nationwide.”The Zionist regime crossed a new red line in international law” by “attacking nuclear facilities”, Araghchi told foreign diplomats, according to state TV.”If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added.- ‘More fiercely’ – Araghchi also condemned on Sunday Israel’s attack a day earlier on a major gas facility operating at South Pars, the world’s largest known gas reserve located off of Iran’s southern Bushehr province.The attacks persisted despite global calls for de-escalation, with Iran scrapping scheduled nuclear talks with the US, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire from Israel.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they had struck sites used by Israeli warplanes for refuelling, in retaliation for the earlier Israeli strikes.The Guards in a statement vowed to respond “more fiercely and more broadly” if Israel keeps up its deadly campaign.Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels also said they had launched several missiles at Israel in attacks that were “coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian military”.The Israeli military said it had intercepted seven drones launched at the country within an hour on Sunday.burs/ds/jsa

A shocked Julia Zilbergoltz said she had never experienced anything like the Iranian missile strike that hit her home in central Israel early Sunday. “I’m stressed and in shock. I’ve been through hard times in my life, but I’ve never been in a situation like this,” Zilbergoltz told AFP, as she gathered her belongings and left her apartment building in Bat Yam, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.”I was at home, I was sleeping and I didn’t hear the siren” warning of an incoming missile attack, she said.She was awoken instead by the loud booms that followed.According to Israeli officials, six people including two children were killed in the strike that destroyed Zilbergoltz’s home.Yivgenya Dudka, whose home was also hit by the missile on the city of Bat Yam, said: “Everything was destroyed. There’s nothing left. No house. That’s it.”In Israel’s north, four people were killed earlier when a strike hit the town of Tamra, taking to 13 the death toll in the country since the start of the attacks began on Friday.Israeli television channels broadcast footage of devastation from four sites where missiles struck in the early hours of Sunday.Tel Aviv and the nearby city of Rishon Lezion were also hit by missiles from Iran, after Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes that hit military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas in the Islamic republic.- ‘Miracle we survived’ -According to data shared by the prime minister’s office, missiles hit some 22 locations across Israel.”I feel very bad. I’m very worried and stressed. I’m in agony for all the dead we have and all the injured people,” said Riky Cohen, a writer from Tel Aviv.”I’m aware that Iran is very dangerous to Israel and the government wishes to destroy Israel,” she told AFP, saying she supported Israel’s military actions.But Cohen said she was also “very worried” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government might “continue the war even though it’s not necessary”.In Bat Yam, Mayor Tzvika Brot said in a Facebook post that the missile had caused “great destruction and damage to dozens of buildings”.In addition to the deaths, Brot said that more than 100 people were injured and others remained trapped under the rubble.”Teams from the Home Front Command have been working here for several hours now, and will remain here until they find them,” he said.Shahar Ben Zion, who was trying to clean up the damage to his home in Bat Yam, said it was “a miracle we survived”.”I didn’t want to go down (to the shelter). My mother convinced me… there was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” he said.”Thank God, it was a miracle we survived.”