Protesters clash with anti-riot police at Milano Centrale train station on the sidelines of a nationwide strike organized by the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB Union) in Milan, northwestern Italy. AFP
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!".
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.
Pro-Palestinians protesters wave USB flags and hold a banner reading “Against war and Genocide General Strike” during a nationwide strike organized by the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB Union) in Turin, northwestern Italy. AFP
"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 wants to "annihilate" the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas.
More than 65,000 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's war on the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
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