ROME: Cities across Italy on Monday saw pro-Palestinian protests, strikes and blockades, responding to calls from unions to "denounce the genocide in Gaza" and for diplomatic and economic sanctions against Israel.
The mobilisation coincided with France's and several other countries' intention to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following recognition by the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada on Sunday.
But Italy has taken a more cautious stance and will not recognise a Palestinian state for now.
In Rome, hundreds of high school students gathered outside Termini train station, waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine!".
People hold banners reading "stop genocide"as they participate at a demonstration part of a nation-wide protest and general strike against the killings in Gaza, in Rome. (Pic credit: AP)
Michelangelo, 17, told AFP he was there to support "a population that is being exterminated".
Francesca Tecchia, 18, is protesting "for the first time", because "what is happening (in Gaza) is too important," she said.
"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 said.
There were also protests in northern cities Milan and Turin, the central city Florence and southern cities Naples, Bari and Palermo.
Dockworkers in Genoa and Livorno in the centre-north blocked the ports, according to Italian news agencies.
In Rome, many buses were not running and the metro service was disrupted, AFP reporters said.
Giorgia Meloni's ultraconservative government is ideologically close to US President Donald Trump and has adopted a cautious stance on the war in Gaza, though Meloni has repeatedly voiced her "concern" over the Israeli offensive.
Rome will not recognise a Palestinian state "for the moment" and has expressed reluctance about implementing the European Union's proposed trade sanctions on Israel.
The Israeli army has in recent days intensified its operation in Gaza, which is already devastated by almost two years of war, and Defence Minister Israel Katz it wants to "annihilate" the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas.
The group is behind the October 7, 2023 attacks that led to the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
More than 65,000 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.