Tens of thousands rock Italian cities over Israeli action in Gaza

Protesters against Israel’s Gaza offensive clashed with police in Milan and other Italian cities on Monday as tens of thousands marched in Rome and dockworkers blocked ports in solidarity with Palestinians.

Police in riot gear fired tear gas to try to disperse protesters at the central station in Milan, a Reuters witness reported. The protesters, some dressed in black and others waving the Palestinian flag, used a pole to smash a window at the station and hurled a chair at police during the clashes.

More than 10 people were arrested in Milan and around 60 police officers suffered bruising or more serious injuries, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.

The protests were part of a nationwide strike called by trade unions against the mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza.

At the port in Venice, police deployed water cannon to help break up demonstrations. Workers also staged protests at ports in the cities of Genoa, Livorno and Trieste.

The dockworkers say they are seeking to prevent Italy from being used as a staging post for the transfer of arms and other supplies to Israel used in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Protesters clash with riot police as they participate in a protest against the Gaza war in Milan, on Monday. AP

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the scenes in Milan, Italy’s financial capital and co-host of the Winter Olympics next February.

“(This was) violence and destruction that have nothing to do with solidarity and will not change the lives of people in Gaza by a fraction, but will have concrete consequences for Italian citizens who will end up suffering and paying for the damage caused by these hooligans,” she said on X.

Meloni’s right-wing government is a traditional supporter of Israel within Europe, and has ruled out following other Western nations by recognising a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, France and other countries were set on Monday to join several Western governments that have angered Israel by recognising a Palestinian state as the UN’s centerpiece diplomatic week got underway in New York.

The meeting is set to begin at 1900 GMT, with several world leaders expected to speak. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the meeting by video after he and dozens of other senior Palestinian officials were denied US visas to attend the conference.

President Emmanuel Macron has indicated France will follow suit Monday as he prepares to host a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman on the moribund idea of a two-state solution, envisioning Palestinian and Israeli coexistence.

A demonstrator walks near the police and Carabinieri outside Milano Centrale railway station, during a protest in solidarity with Gazans in Milan, Italy, on Monday. Reuters

“They want a nation, they want a state, and we should not push them towards Hamas,” Macron said on Sunday, adding that outside recognition of Palestinian aspirations would help isolate the armed group.

More than 80 town halls in France hoisted the Palestinian flag on Monday ahead of the recognition of a Palestinian state by Macron in defiance of a government warning not to do so.

Palestinian flags were raised at town halls in major cities across France — including in Lyon, Nantes, Rennes and Besancon — in defiance of an order by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. Even in Paris, left-wing city councillors put up the flag for 30 minutes at the city hall, despite opposition from Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The interior ministry said that 86 town halls out of 34,875 across the country had flown the Palestinian flag.

Palestinians have welcomed the moves toward recognition, hoping they might someday lead to independence. “This is a beginning, or a glimmer of hope, for the Palestinian people,” Fawzi Nour Al Deen said Sunday as he held a bag on his head, joining thousands of people fleeing south from Gaza City. “We are a people who deserve to have a state.”

Israel will skip an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Gaza scheduled for Tuesday because of the Jewish New Year, its envoy to the UN said calling the timing “regrettable.”

The Gaza health ministry said two Gaza City hospitals have been taken out of service due to the escalation of Israel’s ground offensive and damage caused by continued Israeli bombing, as tanks advanced deeper into the territory.

The ministry said in a statement that Al Rantissi Children’s Hospital had been badly damaged in an Israeli bombardment a few days ago. At the same time, it reported Israeli attacks in the vicinity of the nearby Eye Hospital, which forced the suspension of services there, too.

“The occupation deliberately and systematically targets the healthcare system in the Gaza governorate as part of its genocidal policy against the Strip,” it said.

“None of the facilities or hospitals have safe access routes that allow patients and the wounded to reach them,” the ministry added.

The creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — is widely seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict, which began more than a century before Hamas’ Oct.7 attack ignited the war in Gaza nearly two years ago.

Agencies