Pro-Palestinian demonstrators (illustration)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators (illustration)Reuters

Thousands of people protested in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on Sunday against what some labelled Israel's “genocide in Gaza”, AFP reported, citing local media.

State broadcaster NOS said as many as 10,000 people took part in the demonstration against Israel's defensive operation in Gaza, with marchers waving posters reading: "Free Palestine" and "No Dutch support for Palestinian genocide".

The event was organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian Arab organizations in the Netherlands, according to a Facebook events page.

"Error 404, humanity not found," said one placard held aloft by a protester, according to NOS footage.

The group laid out a collection of coffin-like boxes and an assortment of dolls, some of them burnt, to represent the infant victims of the 20-day conflict.

"For years, the Palestinians have suffered under the illegal blockade and occupation by Israel," said the Facebook page.

"Since July 8, Gaza has additionally been suffering under a daily rain of bombs. The bloodshed must end!"

The protest is the latest in several anti-Israel protests across Europe in recent days. On Saturday, French police arrested 70 people at a banned pro-Palestinian Arab protest in central Paris.

Police who stepped in to disperse the rally responded with tear gas when they were targeted with rocks and other projectiles. About 12 police were slightly injured.

The demonstration in Paris came after other protests last weekend in Paris and a suburb that had also initially been banned descended into chaos.

Similar earlier demonstrations saw hundreds of Muslim extremists attacked a major synagogue in Paris, provoking clashes with Jewish youths who rushed to defend the site and worshippers trapped inside.

There have also been anti-Israel protests in Berlin. Footage of one of these protests showed hundreds of demonstrators chanting in German, “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight on your own”.