Support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza is falling in the Netherlands, with two-thirds of people now describing the most recent bombing as “out of all proportion” and 77% condemning the aid blockade, according to the latest RTL opinion poll.

The research coincided with a shift in position by foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp, who last week called on the EU to consider halting a key treaty with Israel.

Veldkamp told the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, in a letter that Israel’s blockade of Gaza breached the terms of its free trade agreement with the EU.

Two-thirds of voters in the RTL poll also want the Dutch government to speak out more against Israel because of its human rights abuses.

While far-right leader Geert Wilders has condemned Veldkamp’s tougher stance, his position is supported by only 36% of PVV voters, with almost half backing the minister’s statement.

MPs debated the new Dutch position on Tuesday evening, but opposition parties failed to secure enough support for a motion calling on Veldkamp to exert further pressure on Israel through a weapons embargo or sanctions.

“An EU investigation will take too long to stop people dying of starvation,” Socialist MP Sarah Dobbe said.

But Veldkamp stressed the importance of working together with other EU countries. “The Netherlands is a small country on the North Sea and can’t make things happen, just like that, particularly in a volatile situation like the Middle East,” he said.

EU leaders will discuss the issue next week.

Genocidal violence

Earlier this week, the head of the Dutch institute for war studies Niod warned that the destruction of hospitals and schools, the use of hunger as a weapon, and the blocking of food, medicine and fuel deliveries “are all signs that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza may constitute genocidal violence”.

“Hunger is a weapon,” director Martijn Eickhoff told broadcaster NOS, a day after the UN food agency IPC concluded that Gaza’s entire population is at serious risk of famine. “If an entire population is denied access to food, that is potentially genocidal.”

Nearly half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, and Israel has blocked the entry of essential supplies for more than two months. Eickhoff, who also voiced concern in an interview with the NRC last week, said the situation reflects more than physical destruction.

“We are seeing the collapse of social structures,” he said, citing the extensive use of heavy weaponry and the destruction of infrastructure, schools, hospitals and farmland. “There is also systematic violence — such as the refusal to allow food, medicine and fuel in. And it’s affecting not just a specific group, but the entire population of Gaza.”