Police clashed with anti-NATO demonstrators in the southern Italian city of Naples, Italian media reported on Monday.
The clashes began when a group of mostly young people carrying placards denouncing NATO and chanting slogans against it tried to breach a security perimeter around the San Carlo theatre, where a concert was scheduled to mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary, state news agency ANSA reported.
Around 50 people tried to break through the police cordon. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters called on NATO to stop cooperating with Israel.
The agency said eight demonstrators hit by police batons suffered facial and head injuries in the clash.
The activists plan to repeat the rally in ten days. They expect to hold their next rally on 19 April, when the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on the island of Capri in the Gulf of Naples ends.
Late last month, mass group demonstrations took place on March 30 in several European countries as part of the weekly ongoing protests since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Naples is home to NATO’s Joint Forces Command (JFC) and the Defence College.
