Thousands of demonstrators and protesters demanding solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza marched through the streets of Italy on Monday, some of whom stormed the country’s central train station in Milan and violently confronted police.
Italy’s base unions, encompassing hundreds of thousands of individuals from schoolteachers to metalworkers, organized a call for a 24-hour general strike across public and private sectors, such as public transport, trains, schools, and ports.
The strike disrupted the country, with national trains experiencing significant delays and restricted public transport in major cities such as Rome.
In Milan, fights intensified as dozens of demonstrators dressed in black and wielding batons attempted to break open the main door of the city center’s train station, tossing smoke bombs, bottles, and stones at police, who retaliated with pepper spray. In Bologna, police used water cannons to scatter a group of protesters who had blocked a highway.
Traffic of goods was slowed or hindered by sit-ins and protests by workers in Italy’s largest ports, Genoa and Livorno. Over 20,000 protesters converged in front of Rome’s central train station to express outrage at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Unions and student unions condemned “the indecision of the Italian and EU governments.”
If we don’t close what Israel is doing, if we don’t close trade, weapons distribution, and all the rest with Israel, we will never do anything,” Walter Montagnoli, the national secretary of the CUB union, who attended a march in Milan, averred.
Premier Giorgia Meloni denounced violent clashes between some protesters and police as “shameful.
“Destruction and violence have nothing to do with solidarity and won’t make any difference in the lives of people in Gaza,” she posted on X.
The Meloni-led conservative government, a close Israeli friend in the EU, has taken an increasingly tougher line on Israeli policies more recently, as there was domestic pressure building over the war. Italy is not one of the nations, including France, that will officially declare a Palestinian state at this week’s U.N. General Assembly.
The establishment of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza has long been regarded abroad as the sole solution to the conflict, one that started over a century prior to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault that ignited the current war in Gaza. During the attack, Hamas-led militants killed approximately 1,200 individuals, most of whom were civilians, and took 251 hostage. There are still 48 hostages left in Gaza; Israel thinks that 20 of them are still alive.
Israel’s 23-month-long retaliatory campaign has resulted in over 65,100 fatalities in Gaza, as per Gaza’s Health Ministry, leveled large portions of the strip, left about 90% of the residents displaced, and created a devastating humanitarian disaster, with experts claiming Gaza City is facing famine.
The ministry is controlled by the Hamas-led government. U.N. agencies, as well as most independent analysts, regard its numbers as the most accurate estimate of war dead. It does not indicate how many of the dead were civilians or fighters.
