Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in dozens of cities across Italy – shutting schools, disrupting trains and blocking ports and roads – in one of Europe’s largest nationwide protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The protests came as France and several other countries prepared to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN general assembly on Monday after the UK, Australia, Portugal and Canada did so on Sunday.
Italy has so far distanced itself from the coordinated move. The prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has previously said it could be counterproductive to recognise the state of Palestine before it was established. “If something that doesn’t exist is recognised on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” she told the Italian daily La Repubblica in late July.
Grassroots unions across Italy called for a 24-hour general strike on Monday in solidarity with the people of Gaza, citing reasons that included the “inertia of the Italian and EU governments” to address the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
From Milan to Palermo, Italians poured on to the streets in at least 75 municipalities across the country. In Genoa and Livorno, dock workers blocked ports over concerns that Italy was being used as a staging post for the transfer of arms to Israel.
In Rome, more than 20,000 people gathered outside the Termini train station waving Palestinian flags and chanting “free Palestine”. Michelangelo, 17, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he had turned up to support “a population that is being exterminated”.
In the neighbouring Piazza dei Cinquecento, a political science student cited the recently published finding by a UN commission that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza to explain why she and other students were among those protesting.
“This doesn’t mean we’re anti-Jews or antisemitic, and we’re tired of the media and politicians playing on this misunderstanding,” the student, identified only as Alessandra, told La Repubblica. “It just means we’re against a government that’s committing genocide while the international community looks the other way.”
Under the slogan of Let’s Block Everything, those taking part in the general strike called on the government to suspend commercial and military cooperation with Israel and expressed support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international initiative of more than 50 small boats seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Organisers said 50,000 people had turned out in the northern city of Milan, and police in Bologna put the figure there at more than 10,000.
Tensions escalated in Milan when dozens of protesters dressed in black and armed with batons tried to smash the main entrance of the city’s central train station.
They threw smoke bombs, bottles and stones at police, who responded with pepper spray. Police in Bologna used water cannon to disperse a crowd of demonstrators who blocked a main road.
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More than 10 people were arrested in Milan and about 60 police officers suffered bruising or more serious injuries, according to Italy’s Ansa news agency.
Meloni condemned the clashes. “Violence and destruction have nothing to do with solidarity and won’t change a thing in the lives of people in Gaza,” she wrote on social media.
Federica Casino, 52, pointed to the news of children being killed and hospitals being destroyed in Gaza to explain why she was protesting in Rome. “Italy must come to a standstill today,” she told AFP. “Italy talks but does nothing.”
Meloni has repeatedly voiced concerns about the Israeli offence but her far-right government – which has sought to foster close ties with Donald Trump’s administration in the US – has adopted a cautious stance on the war in Gaza.
The transport minister, Matteo Salvini, downplayed the impact of the protests on Monday, describing them as the “political mobilisation of far-left unionists” and praising those who had gone to work.
The Israeli military has in recent days intensified its operation in Gaza, where it has killed more than 65,000 people over the last 23 months. Many thousands more are feared dead, their bodies buried in the rubble. A former Israeli army commander confirmed recently that more than 200,000 Palestinians had been killed or injured in the war.
Israel launched the war in response to the 7 October attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostage.
AFP, Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report