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| Yara Nardi/Reuters |
At a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Rome attended by around 5,000 people, police used tear gas and water cannons as participants began throwing objects at authorities. Demonstrators chanted "vergogna," which means "shame" in Italian, and shouted the names of US President Joe Biden, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They carried placards and shouted "Stop the massacre in Gaza." In Rome's Ostiense Testaccio district, police tightly secured the area, with heavily armored police cars blocking all exits from one square, as an unauthorized protest planned to march from there to the nearby Coliseum. Rome police had rejected a request organized by Palestinian youth groups to hold the rally.
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| Yara Nardi/Reuters |
At around 5pm local time, protesters tried to turn the demonstration into a march but were met with resistance from police in riot gear. Protesters began throwing bottles, stones, paper bombs and even removed road signs at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The protest eventually dispersed at around 6.30pm local time and five protesters were arrested, according to a Rome police spokesman. Some protesters regrouped and carried signs into the surrounding streets. Police said a young woman was hit in the head by a flying object and injured and taken to hospital in an ambulance. Rome police also screened 1,600 people and arrested 19 people who arrived by train at various stations. Police did not disclose the number of arrests.
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