Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned late Friday after the caretaker cabinet refused to back his proposal for tougher, EU-aligned sanctions against Israel in response to the war in Gaza and plans for 3,400 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank. “I am insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures to increase pressure on Israel,” he told reporters after the meeting. Veldkamp’s departure triggered a walkout by his centrist Nieuw Sociaal Contract (NSC) party. Five NSC ministers—including Deputy Prime Minister and Social Affairs Minister Eddy van Hijum—and four state secretaries handed their resignations to King Willem-Alexander, leaving nine cabinet posts vacant and fracturing the three-party coalition that has governed in a caretaker capacity since June. Caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he “regrets” the exits but accepted them given the government’s demissionary status. Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans of the liberal VVD was named acting foreign minister, while remaining VVD and Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) ministers will temporarily cover the other portfolios. Parliament will reconvene on Wednesday to assess the fallout. Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel, had already barred far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering the Netherlands and urged the European Union to suspend its trade accord with Israel if humanitarian conditions in Gaza do not improve. The resignations come amid UN warnings of famine in Gaza and six weeks before a snap general election on 29 October.