Hundreds march in Utrecht to remember Palestinian children killed in Gaza

About 500 people joined a mourning march through Utrecht on Sunday 18 October for Palestinian children killed in Gaza, according to Dutch news agency ANP. Marchers carried a white cloth covered in names and ended their procession at Domplein, where a Syrian musician welcomed them and speakers addressed the gathering. [1]

The organiser, Getuigen van Gaza, says 21,637 children’s names were written on the 36-by-six-metre cloth. ANP reported that participants dressed in black held its edges as they walked. A banner read “Every child has a name” (translated from Dutch). [1] [2]

The names come, the Utrecht organisers say, from a list published in July by Iraq Body Count. Its publication record describes 72,835 deaths certified by Gaza’s health ministry between 7 October 2023 and 7 May 2026. Palestine Datasets, which processed the list, classified 21,637 of those listed as children. The figure on the cloth therefore refers to that dated register, not a death toll updated to the day of the march. [3] [4] [5]

Getuigen van Gaza has called on the Dutch government to act against what it describes as genocide and other unlawful violence against Palestinians. The group says the cloth was previously carried through Amsterdam and plans to take it to Nijmegen on 29 October. [2]