'Truth is their enemy!' - Rotterdam protesters decry Israel's killing of journalists to conceal Gaza massacres

"Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Rotterdam on Saturday to protest the killing of journalists in Gaza and denounce what they called ongoing massacres in Palestine. Footage shows protesters marching with Palestinian flags, placards and banners reading 'Stop the genocide! We need sanctions on Israel' and 'Break all ties with the apartheid state Israel'. Protesters chant and make noise as coffins bearing pictures of journalists killed in Gaza are displayed at the front of the rally. "The Netherlands is doing nothing. No sanctions, nothing. The Netherlands is giving the most money, tax money, to Israel to buy weapons that are killing these people. All these journalists, these children, babies, women and men," proclaimed protest organiser Tariq Turki. "They should be really ashamed of themselves. I'm really ashamed of my country. We need them to take concrete, immediate action. We urge them to take action," a demonstrator echoed the sentiment. She also accused Israel of not allowing foreign journalists in "because their enemy is the truth. They don't want the truth to be seen. So the truth is their enemy. And that's why they kill the journalists." "I wish there were some people from another country so we could really see what is happening there. Because what we're seeing is only a small portion. What we don't see is many times worse," she added. The protest comes after 20 people, including five journalists, were killed in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis on Monday. The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the strikes and expressed regret for the casualties but denied that they targeted journalists. The Israeli Defence Forces also claimed that six of those killed were 'terrorists'. The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian group launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping more than 200 others, according to Israeli officials. The Israeli military's subsequent military operations in Gaza have killed more than 63,300 people and injured over 159,800 others at the time of publication, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health."