Italy faced widespread demonstrations on Monday as thousands of workers and students across the country joined a general strike to denounce the genocide in Gaza
Italy's grassroots unions – which are active at a local level – called for a 24-hour general strike in both public and private sectors, including public transportation, trains, schools and ports.
The strike caused disruptions across the country, with long delays for national trains and limited public transport in major cities, including Rome and Milan.
The transit of goods was slowed or partially blocked by workers' sit-ins and rallies in Italy's main ports of Genoa and Livorno. More than 20,000 people gathered in front of Rome's central station to protest the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
A number of schools across Italy were closed as student organizations and unions denounced "the inertia of the Italian and EU governments."
"If we don't block what Israel is doing, if we don't block trade, the distribution of weapons and everything else with Israel, we will not ever achieve anything," said Walter Montagnoli, national secretary of the CUB union, marching in Milan with protesters.
In Genoa, in northwest Italy, some protesters waved the Palestinian flag during early morning gatherings around the port. Further down the coast in the Tuscan city of Livorno, an entrance to the port was blocked by protesting workers.
Italian 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.
"The Palestinian people continue to give us yet another lesson in dignity and resistance," said Ricky, a protester in Genoa from a group called the Autonomous Port Workers' Collective.
"We learn from them and try to do our part," he told Reuters.
In Bologna, more than 10,000 took to the streets, according to local police, while protesters also took place in Turin, Florence, Naples and Sicily.
Regional train services to Rome faced delays and cancellations because of the strikes, but the Metro underground railway ran as normal. Most of the Metro lines in Milan, Italy's financial capital, were also operating.
Airlines were not affected.
The Italian government, headed by conservative Premier Giorgia Meloni, a close Israeli ally in the EU, has more recently adopted a harsher tone on Israeli policies as domestic pressure mounted over the war.
Italy, however, is not among the countries, including France, that will formally recognize a Palestinian state at this week's U.N. General Assembly. It has also expressed reluctance about implementing the European Union's proposed trade sanctions on Israel.
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini tried to play down the impact of the protests that he claimed were organized by a far-left union group.
"Italy must come to a standstill today," said Federica Casino, a 52-year-old worker protesting with the students for Gaza's "dead children and destroyed hospitals."
"Italy talks but does nothing," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Francesca Tecchia, 18, was protesting "for the first time" because "what is happening (in Gaza) is too important."
According to a recent survey by polling company Only Numbers, published by La Stampa newspaper, almost 64% of Italians consider the humanitarian situation in Gaza "very serious" and almost 41% want Italy to recognize a Palestinian state.
The creation of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza has long been seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict, which began more than a century ago.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza, which has so far killed nearly 65,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Israeli strikes destroyed vast areas of the enclave, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
