20,000 children’s shoes on Amsterdam’s Dam Square honor Gaza’s children and journalists

A memorial on Amsterdam’s Dam Square on April 12, 2026, honored children and journalists killed in Gaza with 20,000 children’s shoes, as the names and ages of the children were read aloud one by one.

The Plant an Olive Tree Foundation held a memorial on April 12, 2026, on Dam Square in central Amsterdam for Palestinian children and journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. Some 20,000 children’s shoes were laid out on the square, along with toys and flowers.

Dutch artists, actors, producers, writers and journalists read aloud the names and ages of children killed in Gaza, while photos and names of slain journalists were displayed. According to Anadolu Agency, the event commemorated 313 journalists killed over two and a half years.

Thousands of shoes laid out across Dam Square

“We gather here again and again to make this invisible number tangible,” said foundation director Esther van der Most. Actress and singer Georgina Verbaan said: “I cannot accept that we live in a country that does nothing.” It was the 16th such memorial for children and the fourth for journalists.

The display drew criticism from pro-Israel voices. The Times of Israel said the rows of shoes appeared to appropriate Holocaust imagery, noting that the event was held less than two days before Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. Footage of the memorial went viral again in September.