By Claudia Greco
MILAN (Reuters) -Striking dockworkers blocked access roads to ports in Italy on Monday and violence flared at a pro-Palestinian protest in the centre of Milan as unions staged a day of protest against Israel's Gaza offensive.
Protesting 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 that is at war with Hamas in Gaza.
Police in riot gear and using tear gas clashed with protesters around
the central station in Milan, a Reuters witness reported, while Italian media said that demonstrators were trying to halt traffic on the motorway close to the city of Bologna.
In the southern city of Naples, there were skirmishes with police as protesters forced their way into the main railway station. Some of them briefly got on to the tracks, causing delays to services.
Thousands demonstrated in other Italian cities, schools were closed and some public transport was affected by stoppages called by unions.
PALESTINIAN FLAG WAVED AT PORT GATHERINGS
In Genoa, in northwest Italy, protesters among a crowd of several hundred people 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. A similar protest also took place in Trieste, in the northeast.
"The Palestinian people continue to give us yet another lesson in dignity and resistance," said Ricky, a protester in Genoa from a grassroots labour group called the Autonomous Port Workers' Collective.
"We learn from them and try to do our part," he added.
The right-wing Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is a traditional supporter of Israel within Europe, and has ruled out following other Western nations by recognising a Palestinian state.
Regional train services to Rome faced delays and cancellations because of the strikes but the underground railway ran as normal. Most of the metro lines in Milan, Italy's financial capital, were also operating.
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini played down the impact of the protests on the rail network, praising those who had gone to work.
"Today's strike is causing the cancellation of only a limited number of trains. The political mobilisation of far-left trade unionists cannot harm millions of workers," he said.
(Reporting by Roberto Mignucci and Angelo AmanteWriting by Keith Weir; editing by Barbara Lewis and Alvise Armellini)
