Thousands march in Brussels demanding permanent ceasefire in Gaza

Thousands marched on the streets of Brussels on Sunday, calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and urging both the Belgian government and the European Union (EU) to sanction Israel.

Protesters demanded the protection of the Palestinian population, the release of politically detained individuals, and access to international aid for those in Gaza currently facing a humanitarian emergency. 

Organisers on social media also urged the Belgian government to impose a comprehensive international military embargo against Israel, support the ongoing case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s conduct during the war with Hamas, and push the EU to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel on the grounds of human rights violations.  

Belgian police said they counted around 7,000 people taking part at the march. It was organised by dozens of Belgian NGOs, including 11.11.11, Amnesty International Belgium, Pax Christi and Groen.

Those at the rally chanted slogans like “Free, free Palestine!” and “Stop, stop genocide!” as they marched through the Belgian capital.

Many at the protest could be seen carrying placards with first names on them – which they say is to put a face behind the death toll in Gaza. Local health authorities report that over 46,000 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, were killed during the 15-month-long war. Around 1.9 million of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million were displaced. 

Demonstrators said the ceasefire, which took effect last week, offered Palestinians in Gaza respite, but that the agreement does yet guarantee the end of the conflict in the region. They urged the EU and its Member States to address the situation in Gaza. 

Wies de Graeve, director of Amnesty International Belgium’s Flemish branch, said: “The ceasefire has been good news, of course, for the families of the hostages and also for the families of Palestinians who had been arbitrarily detained in Israel.”

However, de Graeve said living conditions in Gaza continue to endanger Palestinians. He said it was important for a comprehensive arms embargo to be maintained and established against Israel and for the Belgian government, as well as the EU, to fully support the International Criminal Court in investigating the conflict.

“If we don’t look at this in the broader context of an end to occupation and an end of the apartheid system committed against the Palestinians, we will never see a real solution that respects the human rights of all in the region.“

Despite the recently announced ceasefire, living conditions in Gaza remain dire. The war set back development in Gaza by as much as 69 years, according to an assessment made by a UN-backed report.  

The United Nation’s Development Programme said the Palestinian economy could be put on a restorative track to align with its pre-war development goals in the next decade, but this would require a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan which combines humanitarian aid and strategic investment in recovery and reconstruction. 

Thousands of Palestinians were kept from returning to their homes in northern Gaza by Israel on Sunday, as it accused Hamas of violating the fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it had released. Local health officials said Israeli forces fired on the crowd, killing two and wounding nine. 

Israel said its war in Gaza was essential to combat Hamas and that its strikes and blockade were intended to target the militant group rather than civilians. 

Their offensive began after Hamas’ cross-border attack into Israel on 7 October, 2023, which saw around 1,200 people killed and more than 200 others taken as hostages back to Gaza. 

Intensifying violence in the West Bank

As Palestinians returned to their homes in Gaza under the terms of the long-awaited ceasefire deal, Israeli forces launched a major operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. 

Suspected Israeli settlers tore through two Palestinian towns and several people were killed by Israeli airstrikes.

Palestinians view such operations and the expansion of settlements as ways of cementing Israeli control over the West Bank, where three million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule. 

Jenin Mayor Mohammad Jarrar described the scale and intensity of the Israeli operation to CNN as “by far the hardest and most troubling” in recent months. He warned against “a man-made disaster similar to what we have seen in Gaza”.  

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that if Israel carries out its threat to close its east Jerusalem headquarters, the outsize effects will be felt acutely and immediately by tens of thousands of Palestinians. 

The agency, known as UNRWA, runs 12 facilities that provide critical public services across east Jerusalem, including schools enrolling at least 1,200 children and free clinics serving over 70,000 people.

Israel says the agency has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the UN. 

The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group. 

Meanwhile, newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump has rescinded the Biden administration’s sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.  

According to the Times of Israel, the order was used over the past year against 17 individuals and 16 entities, including settlers the US said had violently attacked Palestinians and illegally driven them off their land.  

It is understood that Netanyahu raised the issue with Trump ahead of his inauguration.  

More than half a million Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war. These settlements are considered illegal under international law. 

Israeli troops and settlers have reportedly killed at least 851 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza. 

Donald Trump’s comments on Gaza

Recently inaugurated US president Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that Egypt and Jordan take in Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. 

He said he would urge the leaders of the two Arab countries to take in the largely homeless population, so that “we just clean out that whole thing.” He added that resettling Gaza’s population “could be temporary or long-term.” 

“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” Trump said, referring to the vast destruction in the wake of Israeli’s military campaign, “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.” 

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said Palestinians would never accept such a proposal “even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction.” He said the Palestinians can rebuild Gaza “even better than before.”  

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told journalists that his country’s rejection of the proposed transfer of Palestinians was “firm and unwavering.” 

Both Egypt and Jordan have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem – territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza’s population could make that impossible. 

Before and during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, some 700,000 Palestinians – a majority of the pre-war population – fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel, an event they commemorate as the Nakba. 

Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. The refugees and their descendants now number around 6 million, with large communities in Gaza, as well as the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. 

Trump’s proposal is likely to be welcomed by Israel, where Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary migration of large numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. 

Human rights groups have already accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, which United Nations experts have defined as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas “by violent and terror-inspiring means.”