The organization regrets showing horrific images of the Hamas attack during the vigil: “We went for shock effect” | outside

The organization said it wanted to create a shock effect. And so, on Wednesday afternoon, in the parking lot of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, they showed videos on two large screens of the massacres that killed 1,200 people in Israel four months earlier. Some of the images of charred corpses of children, among others, cannot even be found on social media, they are so extreme. The photographs were shown to nearly three hundred Dutch and Belgian Jews who came to The Hague to support the families of the Israeli hostages. The Israelis are in the Netherlands to hand over evidence of the Hamas attack to the International Criminal Court.

The demonstrators initially waved many Israeli flags, some held up pictures of the hostages and sometimes chanted, “Send them home now!” Repeat. Kris den Houdt even took the microphone on behalf of the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families, the organization behind the meeting, and said a film containing shocking images would follow.

The impact among those present was great. People stayed away so they didn't have to watch the movie. Some started crying. No one spoke anymore, there was complete silence. “I don't need to see this, it's too intense,” one protester said calmly. When the families of the hostages arrived at the site, most of them regrouped and flags and banners were raised again.

Kris den Houdt said a day later that the organization should have prepared attendees better. “We are gone for shock effect. Many have forgotten what happened on October 7, while it was the Hamas attack that sparked the current war. It now sometimes appears that Israel alone is the aggressor. That is why we continue to draw attention to the atrocities.”

“Looking back, we should have prepared people better,” the organizer says. “So everyone knows that images based on security cameras, phones, dash cams and personal cameras seized from Hamas terrorists can stir up emotions. We didn't think enough about it. “We will approach it differently from now on,” says den Hoedt.

The Israeli government had also previously shown the film, along with uncensored images, to the media through various embassies, among others. In these cases, everyone was given extensive advance warning.