Israel has been at war with the Gaza-based militant group Hamas since last October after it launched an attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. More recently a new front has opened up in Lebanon where the IDF launched a ground operation on 30 September.
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Hundreds of protesters marched through central Rome, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. While chanting "Free, Free Palestine," they also urged an end to the fighting in Lebanon, where violence has intensified in recent weeks.
"One demonstrator, Pietro Marchioncini, said students felt compelled to take to the streets, demanding a ceasefire and freedom. He called on the government to act against attacks, not just on UN bases but also when civilians—women, men, and children—are targeted. Marchioncini blamed the escalation on what he described as the "madness" of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his "policy of hatred."
Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah have traded almost daily fire since the war in Gaza broke out in October, displacing thousands on both sides of the border.
Those hostilities have ramped up recently with both sides striking targets deeper inside each other's countries.
On Saturday at a meeting of the MED9 group of southern EU countries, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez joined with Emmanuel Macron to condemn what the French president called Israel's "deliberate targeting" of soldiers belonging to a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.
UN sources said that Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
France, Spain and Italy all contribute troops to UNIFIL.
"I can't avoid going back and condemning what happened. It is not acceptable. It violates the provisions of UN Resolution 1701. The Italian government, as you know, has strongly protested to the Israeli authorities," Meloni said.
Meanwhile, on 30 September, Israel launched what it called a targeted ground operation in Lebanon, it says to find and eliminate Hezbollah positions.
It's believed there could be up to 15,000 Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon.
Protests in Portugal
There were similar scenes in the Portuguese capital Lisbon where thousands marched calling for an end to the hostilities in Gaza and criticising what they say is the complicity of Western governments who sell arms to Israel.
The war in Gaza broke out on 7 October last year after the militant group Hamas launched a lightning incursion into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others back to the Strip as hostages.
The Israeli military response was almost immediate and has devastated Gaza. The UN said in August that around 80% of all buildings in the Strip had been destroyed.
That's sparked a massive humanitarian catastrophe with tens of thousands of Gazans internally displaced, often living in squalid tent camps with little to no access to food, fresh water and medical facilities.
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed in just over a year of fighting but it doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally.