A piercing chorus of tooting horns and dockers shouting “we don’t want you” greeted an Israeli-owned container ship when it arrived in Livorno, a port city on the coast of Tuscany this week.

For two days, the striking dockworkers stood their ground, refusing to unload and reload the ship’s cargo in a display of defiant solidarity for Palestinians and the Global Sumud flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza. The protest was a triumph and the ship, bound for the US and Canada, left.

From Genoa, Trieste and Ravenna in the north, to Salerno and Taranto in the south, in recent weeks port workers across Italy have succeeded in obstructing ships believed to have been carrying weapons for Israel, as opposition to the country’s war in Gaza intensifies.

The dockers’ determination to block weapons and stifle trade has been a crucial component of the pro-Palestinian uprising in Italy as pressure mounts on Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to take a stronger stance against Israel.