Overview

• Grassroots unions including USB and CUB led a nationwide walkout across roughly 80 cities covering public and private sectors from schools to trains and ports.
• Rail services saw long delays and city transit was curtailed, while freight traffic slowed at Genoa and Livorno after port workers mounted actions also announced for Trieste, Ravenna, Piombino and Ancona.
• Confrontations escalated as protesters tried to force entry at Milan’s central station with smoke bombs, bottles and stones, prompting police tear gas, and water cannon were deployed to clear a highway in Bologna.
• Turnout included more than 20,000 outside Rome’s main station with large gatherings in Milan, Bologna and Catania, as organizers denounced what they call a genocide in Gaza.
• Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani criticized disruptive tactics while demonstrators cited casualty and displacement figures reported by Gaza health authorities and UN agencies, and a related rally in Gijón, Spain drew about 2,000 people.