Dutch foreign minister resigns over cabinet split on Israel sanctions

CAIRO – 23 August 2025: Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced his resignation late Friday following a deep division within the cabinet over potential new sanctions against Israel, the AFP reported.

Speaking to Dutch news agency ANP, Veldkamp admitted that he felt "insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures."

“I feel constrained in setting the course I consider necessary as foreign minister,” he said.

Veldkamp said earlier this week that he no longer had confidence that he could take effective steps in the weeks or months ahead.

His resignation comes while the war in Gaza has been ongoing for more than 22 months, killing over 62,000, injured nearly 160,000 more, and starved 281 people, 114 of them children, to death.

A UN-backed food security analysis released on Friday officially confirmed that famine is underway in Gaza City.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released on Friday, more than 500,000 people are currently facing famine conditions, with the crisis expected to spread across other areas of the strip in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has started an operation to seize control of Gaza City, home to around one million people before the operation, and impose full security control over the entire Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday escalated rhetoric, warning that “soon, the gates of hell will open” in Gaza City if Hamas refuses to accept Israel’s conditions for ending the war, chiefly, the release of all captives and Hamas’ disarmament.

Israel’s intentions to reoccupy Gaza have sparked strong condemnation, even from Israel’s closest European allies, amidst the worsening humanitarian crisis.