𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥

Middle East Monitor, September 19, 2025 at 10:27 am

 

The Italian port of Ravenna on Thursday refused to load two containers filled with explosives for shipment to Israel, following a request by local authorities, according to a statement issued by the city’s municipality.

Ravenna’s mayor, Alessandro Barattoni, said in a statement: “Thanks to courageous dockers, we were informed last night of the scheduled arrival today of two containers to the Ravenna port”

Ravenna, along with provincial leaders and the regional Emilia-Romagna government, are shareholders in the port, which allowed them to block the shipment.

“You must choose a side, and Emilia-Romagna and Ravenna know perfectly which: the one of innocent victims and hostages, and not the one of criminal governments and terrorist organisations,” the regional leaders said in a statement.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza “unacceptable”, but unlike several European countries such as France and Spain, she ruled out recognising Palestinian statehood, stressing that recognition should only follow the creation of a genuine Palestinian state.

In early June, workers at the port of Marseille in southern France also refused to load containers of military equipment bound for Haifa, saying they would not “take part in the genocide being carried out by the Israeli government” or become “complicit in these massacres.”