Dock Workers in Italy Unwilling to Contribute to Arming Israeli Regime


Dock Workers in Italy Unwilling to Contribute to Arming Israeli Regime

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Dock workers in western Italy reportedly plan to withhold their cooperation with a weapon shipment process aimed at further armament of the Israeli regime amid its atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

The longshoremen in the port city of Livorno took the decision after finding out that they could be unwittingly aiding one such shipment operation, Italian online newspaper Contropiano reported on Friday.

The workers were tipped off that some of the containers they were supposed to load onto a vessel destined for the port city of Ashdod in the occupied territories, contained “weapons and explosives.”

They, therefore, decided to snub the process that involves a container carrier, dubbed Asiatic Island.

The “weapons and explosives…will be used to kill the Palestinian population already hit by a severe attack this very night that has caused [the deaths of] hundreds of victims among the civilian population, including many children,” the newspaper wrote.

It was referring to the recent serious escalation in the Israeli regime’s military assaults against Tel Aviv-blockaded Gaza.

Since Monday, when the escalation began, Israeli warplanes and later artillery units began laying into the coastal sliver, killing more than a 100 people there.

Most recently, the attacks butchered an entire Gazan family, including eight children.

According to the daily, the Italian shoreline is regularly used for stopovers by vessels that are headed towards the occupied territories.

No earlier than on Thursday, dozens of armored vehicles were taken to the coastal city of Genoa in northwestern Italy in order to be likewise shipped to the occupied territories.

The workers, who planned to snub the shipping operation, also cited legitimate security concerns about the hazards involving handling of the weapon-laden containers.

An Italian workers’ union that first reported their refusal also said that the dockers were also to hold a pro-Palestinian protest on Livorno’s streets on Saturday.

The protest was to be held “in solidarity with the Palestinian population and to ask for an immediate stop to the bombing of Gaza.”

The rally was also to urge “a stop to the expropriation of Palestinian homes, in which they have been living under military occupation for years.”

The latter refers to the Israeli military’s efforts earlier this month to force Palestinian families out of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the holy city of al-Quds in the Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank.

The expulsion campaign came amid the Israeli military and illegal settlers’ incessant attacks on Palestinian worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan.

Scores more have died during the violence targeting the Palestinians in the West Bank. The regime’s atrocities in both the Palestinian territories have been met with sweeping international rage and condemnation.

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