Florence Joins Nationwide Pro-Palestinian Protests After Flotilla Raid

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Florence on Wednesday in response to the Israeli raid on the Global Sumud Flotilla. The gathering began in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, where demonstrators held an assembly in solidarity with Palestine. As the evening progressed, the assembly turned into a march that moved toward Piazza della Libertà, drawing more participants along the way.

More than a thousand people joined the procession, which blocked traffic on viale Matteotti in both directions. According to reports, the demonstration was peaceful, and passing motorists greeted it with applause rather than complaints.

The protest in Florence was part of a broader wave of mobilizations across Tuscany and Italy. In Pisa, about 500 demonstrators blocked the first six tracks of the central railway station, halting train traffic for nearly an hour. The group, made up of student organizations, grassroots unions, and radical left movements, had marched from Piazza XX Settembre—renamed by activists as “Piazza Gaza”—to the station. After leaving the tracks, they returned to the city center for another rally. A special session of the city council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been scheduled for Wednesday, on the eve of a nationwide general strike called by several unions.

In Livorno, protests also reached the port. A few hundred people blocked a ferry bound for Sardinia, delaying its departure by nearly an hour. Later in the night, the demonstrators marched to the prefecture, where they continued their rally outside the government building.

The protests followed news of the boarding of the Global Sumud Flotilla by Israeli forces earlier in the day, an episode that has reignited pro-Palestinian demonstrations in several Italian cities.

Updates: Student Protest Blocks Traffic in Central Florence

On Thursday morning high school students from the Michelangiolo and Castelnuovo licei staged a protest in via della Colonna, one of the main streets used by urban buses in the historic center. The demonstration brought traffic to a standstill, leaving a long line of vehicles immobilized while students waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans such as “We are all anti-Zionist.”

At the Michelangiolo, students agreed to hold an assembly in the school courtyard with the principal and teachers later in the morning. Castelnuovo students, meanwhile, remained in the street, continuing their protest.

Updates: Occupied a university complex

Several hundred students occupied the university complex in via Laura, hanging a banner at the entrance that read: “If you block the Flotilla, we block everything.” A public assembly was announced inside the building.

At the same time, in nearby Piazza Santissima Annunziata, students from the Galileo high school gathered after holding a picket at their campus. They were soon joined by groups from other schools, creating an improvised rally with Palestinian and peace flags. Demonstrators declared their intention to march through the streets of the historic center, chanting slogans such as “Let’s block the schools, let’s block the universities.”

Updates: Railway Station Occupied by Thousands

In the evening, the protest escalated as thousands of demonstrators entered Florence’s Santa Maria Novella railway station at the end of a march through the city center. A large group broke through police lines and descended onto the tracks, halting both arrivals and departures.

According to reports, more than 3,000 people took part in the demonstration, which filled Piazza Adua beside the station before spilling onto the platforms, where protesters mingled with commuters and travelers.

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