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Italian police clash with anti-Israel protesters near Israeli embassy in Rome

Hundreds of demonstrators waving Palestinian flags faced tear gas and water cannons after breaching barriers.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Baton-wielding police clashed Friday evening in Rome with anti-Israel demonstrators trying to storm the Israeli Embassy in the Italian capital.

Hundreds of protesters waved Palestinian flags, chanted and held banners against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as they marched in Piazza Verdi, near the embassy.

One of the banners read, “Zionism is a danger to the world. Expel the Israeli ambassador from Italy.”

The organizers had been warned that those participating in the demonstration were prohibited from moving to other sites because of the danger to public safety, and that if they ignored the order, police would dissolve the protest.

Having breached the boundaries of their allotted protest sit-in area, the mostly young male crowd refused orders to disband and broke through police barriers.

They moved hundreds of meters down the street toward their target before being stopped by a cordon of police and armored vehicles.

Hundreds of blue-helmeted police with shields moved in a line to try to push the protesters back before using tear gas, which did not stop them.

Online videos showed large police trucks also spraying water at the crowd.

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According to Italian media outlet Sky TG24, the water cannons were deployed several times, on at least two streets where protesters had gathered.

At one point, the crowds sat on the ground in the piazza, singing “Bella Ciao,” a famous Italian folk song that has become a global anthem of resistance against oppression.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, which recently failed to breach the legal sea blockade Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip while falsely claiming to have humanitarian aid on board, was one of the protest organizers, according to The Times of India.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the demonstration was also attended by labor unions and several left-wing and pro-Palestinian organizations.

The demonstrators demanded Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s resignation over her alleged “complicity” in what they called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza – a claim Jerusalem has rejected in toto.

Meloni had told the flotilla organizers to stop trying to run the blockade, calling their attempt “gratuitous, dangerous and irresponsible,” as the Italian government “and competent authorities could have delivered [their aid] in a few hours.”

The anti-Israel demonstration took place even though a cease-fire was declared on October 10 in the Gaza Strip and is still holding, although both Hamas and Israel accuse the other of repeatedly violating its terms.