MILAN (Reuters) – Around a hundred students occupied Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to denounce what they say is the Italian defence group’s complicity in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The students, who unfurled a flag of the Palestinian territories from the roof of Leonardo’s offices, said the company was supporting Israel by providing remote technical assistance and spare parts to Israel’s air force.
Leonardo declined to comment.
Images released by the students show them in Leonardo’s offices waving Palestinian flags and carrying spray cans. Outside they hung banners on the buildings saying ‘no arms to Israel’ and accusing the group of complicity in genocide.
They also clambered on top of a plane in the grounds of the company’s headquarters.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto condemned the protest, saying on X that the students were “destroying and defacing” the offices where an “important meeting with the staff of the defence ministry” was taking place.
“These people must be treated for what they are, dangerous subversives. Criminals have no political colour, they are just criminals,” he said.
Crosetto said in March that Italy had continued to export arms to Israel, despite government assurances last year that it was blocking such sales following the Israeli army’s campaign in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
In March the minister said only previously signed orders were being honoured after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gazan civilians.
Through its U.S. subsidiary, Leonardo provides Israel with aircraft and owns an Israeli radar company called RADA.
Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.
(Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro, editing by Gavin Jones and Ros Russell)
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