Violent pro-Palestine protests have spread across Europe as world leaders gathered at the UN to debate a two-state solution.
Protests erupted in Italy Monday as thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators dressed in black and armed with batons tried to smash the main entrance of the city’s central train station, throwing smoke bombs, bottles and stones at riot cops, who responded with pepper spray and tear gas.
More than 10 people were arrested in Milan and around 60 police officers suffered bruising or more serious injuries, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.
The violence comes as France and Saudi Arabia convened dozens of world leaders in New York to rally support for a two-state solution.
French President Emmanuel Macron officially recognised the state of Palestine during his speech, following the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal, who also made the same move over the weekend.
‘We want two states living side by side in peace and security to become a reality,’ Macron said. Recognising a Palestinian state ‘is in the interest’ of peace and is ‘a defeat for Hamas’, he added.
‘However, currently Israel is further extending its military operation in Gaza with the stated objective of destroying Hamas, but there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced, injured, famished, traumatised.
‘We’re so convinced that this recognition is the only solution that will allow for Israel to live in peace, France has never wavered, standing by Israel’s side even when its security was at stake, including when there were Iranian strikes,’ he said.
Protesters clash with anti-riot police at Milano Centrale train station on the sidelines of a nationwide strike organized by the Unione Sindacale di Base
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a high-profile meeting at the United Nations aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, at UN headquarters
Israel’s seat is empty as French President Emmanuel Macron (out of frame) speaks during a United Nations Summit on Palestinians at UN headquarters during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on September 22, 2025
‘This recognition of the state of Palestine is a defeat for Hamas.’
However, dozens of seats where the Israeli and US delegation were meant to sit were left empty after both boycotted the summit on the two-state solution.
Donald Trump is set to speak at the UN General Assembly tomorrow but the US remains vehemently opposed to the recognition of statehood and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed ‘there will be no Palestinian state.’
Macron explained that the ‘top priority’ is to ensure the release of 48 hostages and put an end to military operations throughout the territory of Gaza. ‘I commend the efforts undertaken by Qatar, Egypt and the US to achieve this,’ he said.
‘I ask Israel to do nothing more that would thwart these.’
The French president also paid tribute to the 51 French nationals killed on October 7, 2023 and all other victims of the Hamas-led attacks. He went on to plead for peace ‘on behalf of our friendship with Israel (and) the Palestinian people’.
‘We must save all lives, because for two years now, it is the humanity of others that has been denied,’ he says, stressing that ‘all lives are of equal value’, he said.
Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations also acknowledged the Palestinian delegation and noted his disappointment that they were denied the opportunity to be fully represented after the US revoked their visas.
‘The situation is intolerable and it is deteriorating by the hour,’ he said.
‘We are here today to help navigate the only way out of this nightmare, a two-state solution where two independent sovereign democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace and security.’
He went on to say that without two states, there will be no peace in the Middle East and warns that ‘radicalism’ will spread around the world.
And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas added: ‘We call for a permanent ceasefire, we need to ensure humanitarian access through the United Nations and UNRWA. I know we need to guarantee the release of hostages, all hostages and prisoners.
‘I address the Israeli people saying, our future and yours banks on peace, enough violence and war. Our generation deserves to enjoy freedom and security.
‘Let the people in our region live in durable peace and good neighbourliness,’ he said.
Monday’s strike in Italy caused disruptions across the country, with long delays for national trains and limited public transport in major cities, including Rome.
Italy’s grassroots unions, which represent hundreds of thousands of people ranging from schoolteachers to metalworkers, called for a 24-hour general strike in both public and private sectors, including public transportation, trains, schools and ports.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the scenes in Milan, Italy’s financial capital and co-host of the Winter Olympics next February.
‘(This was) violence and destruction that have nothing to do with solidarity and will not change the lives of people in Gaza by a fraction, but will have concrete consequences for Italian citizens who will end up suffering and paying for the damage caused by these hooligans,’ she said on X.
In Bologna, police used water cannons to disperse a crowd of demonstrators who blocked a highway.
Protesters clash with policemen during the nationwide strike with the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’ in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and call for a halt to arms shipments to Israel, in Milan, Italy, 22 September 2025
USB union has organized a 24-hour national general strike across all sectors to demand that the government immediately break off relations with the State of Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Global Sumud Flotilla
More than 10 people were arrested in Milan and around 60 police officers suffered bruising or more serious injuries
Protesters burn an Israeli flag during a protest as part of the nationwide strike with the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’ in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza
Unions and student organisations denounced ‘the inertia of the Italian and EU governments’
Protesters assist a person during clashes at Milan’s Central Station amid the nationwide strike with the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’ in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza
The transit of goods was slowed or partially blocked by workers’ sit-ins and rallies in Italy’s main ports of Genoa and Livorno. The 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 used in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
More than 20,000 people gathered in front of Rome’s central station to protest the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Tens of thousands also gathered in Rome’s central square at midday, marching near the main station and Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, where Pope Francis is buried, chanting for an end to ‘genocide in Gaza.’
Unions and student organizations denounced ‘the inertia of the Italian and EU governments.’
‘If we don’t block what Israel is doing, if we don’t block trade, the distribution of weapons and everything else with Israel, we will not ever achieve anything,’ said Walter Montagnoli, national secretary of the CUB union, who joined a march in Milan.
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.
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.
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini played down the impact of the protests on the rail network, praising those who had gone to work.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the scenes in Milan, Italy’s financial capital and co-host of the Winter Olympics next February
Protesters clash with anti-riot police at Milano Centrale train station, on the sidelines of a nationwide strike organized by the Unione Sindacale di Base
Protesters try to break the windows at the entrance of a shopping area at Milano Centrale train station during clashes
Protesters enter Central Station during clashes with police after the strike march in support of Palestine
Around 70 Italian cities are participating in the general strike, with demonstrations calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, urging the government to sever all relations with the State of Israel, and reaffirming support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, the naval fleet committed to delivering aid to the Palestinian people
Protesters and policemen clash at Milan’s Central Station during a protest as part of the nationwide strike with the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’
‘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.
Italy’s conservative government headed by Meloni, a close Israeli ally in the EU, has more recently adopted a harsher tone on Israeli policies as domestic pressure mounted over the war.
Italy, however, is not among the countries, including France, that will formally recognise a Palestinian state at this week’s UN General Assembly.
The creation of a Palestinian state in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza has long been seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict, which began more than a century before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
In the attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. There are still 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom Israel believes 20 are still alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive over the past 23 months has killed more than 65,100 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, destroyed vast areas of the strip, displaced around 90 per cent of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
The ministry is under the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants.
