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Police Arrest 3 Following Red Paint Vandalism, Smashed Glass at Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands
The scene on Aug. 12, 2025, after vandals struck at the Israeli embassy in The Hague. Photo: Israel Foreign Ministry
Law enforcement in The Hague has apprehended three suspects following vandalism at the Israeli embassy on Tuesday morning.
“This is what dangerous incitement and lies against Israel look like,” Israel’s foreign ministry said on X, alongside an image of the crime featuring splatters of blood-like red paint and a broken window. “This incitement against Israel has already claimed the lives of two workers of the Israeli Embassy in the US, and in the Netherlands itself, this resulted in a pogrom against Israelis just a few months ago. This incitement must be confronted with the full force of truth.”
The ministry was referring to how, in June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by a national Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
That incident came months after Israeli soccer fans were brutally assaulted in Amsterdam after watching a European League match. During the premeditated and coordinated violence on Nov. 7, 2024, the Israeli fans were chased with knives and sticks in several locations around the city, run over by cars, physically beaten, and some were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine” to avoid further assault. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
Modi Ephraim, Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, called this week’s crime a “cowardly act” and “yet another illustration of the dangerous consequences of rising hatred and incitement.”
Ephraim said that “diplomats must be able to carry out their work safely and unhindered at all times. The police have arrested suspects. We are confident that the Dutch authorities will take all necessary measures to prevent such attacks in the future.”
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a statement on X following the attack: “Make no mistake: this is an act of intimidation, the result of two years of incitement against Israel. We are left wondering: Where were the Dutch police? Where were the security forces tasked with protecting diplomats in The Hague? This grievous breach of security is unacceptable.”
Pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs said following the crime that “these vile actions must be universally condemned.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 survey of antisemitism levels around the world — updated Jan. 14 — the Netherlands is one of the least hateful countries with 8 percent of the population harboring elevated antisemitic views (agreeing with at least 6 common antisemitic stereotypes.) This places the Netherlands as the nation with the fourth lowest rate of antisemitism on the planet.
On Nov. 22, 2024, the Dutch government announced plans to increase security funding at Jewish institutions by €1.3 million ($1.5 million) annually, establish an antisemitism task force, and research the root causes of hate against Jews in order to develop “instruments to make young people and adults more resilient and that can lead to changes in attitudes and behavior.”
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.