Local officials in Italy said Thursday that they had blocked a shipment of “explosives” to Israel to protest its Gaza offensive.
The move was made by the city hall of Ravenna, the Adriatic port controlled by the centre-left Democratic Party — an opposition group against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.
“Thanks to courageous dockers, we were informed last night of the scheduled arrival today of two containers to the Ravenna port” listed as explosives, Mayor Alessandro Barattoni said in a statement.
Ravenna along with provincial leaders and the regional Emilia-Romagna government are shareholders in the port, which allowed them to block the shipment.
“You must choose a side, and Emilia-Romagna and Ravenna know perfectly which: the one of innocent victims and hostages, and not the one of criminal governments and terrorist organisations,” the regional leaders said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Italy’s national government, whose leader Meloni has expressed “deep concern” over Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.
Israel’s latest offensive in the Palestinian territory has sparked international outrage after nearly two years of war, with the Gaza City area gripped by a UN-declared famine.
The war was sparked by the October 2023 attack by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,141 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
