Pro-Palestinian protest threat racks up tension for Italy's World Cup qualifier with Israel

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Italy in anger at Israel's actions, and calls for the country to be barred from international sport have grown louder.

The protests were in response to Israel's military operation in Gaza, which was sparked by the attack by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip.

During Friday's massive strike action in support of the Palestinians, demonstrators went to the Italian national team's training centre in Florence to demand the match against Israel be called off.

As of Tuesday only around 4,000 tickets had been sold for the game in Udine, a small city in Italy's far north-east, which was picked specifically to help limit the potential for disorder.

Udine was the venue when Italy -- who face Estonia in Tallinn on Saturday -- last hosted Israel, in the Nations League in September 2024. That match passed off largely without incident, albeit surrounded by a massive security operation which included soldiers on the roof of the stadium.

But the threat of much bigger and more disruptive protests led Udine's mayor Alberto Felice De Toni to ask for the match to be postponed.

- 'Very sad' -

This week Italy's coach Gennaro Gattuso said the situation in Gaza was "very sad" and lamented a difficult atmosphere for a match which will be key to Italy's hopes of avoiding missing out on a third straight World Cup.

"There will be 10,000 people outside the stadium and 5-6,000 inside it... I would have preferred to play a home match in front of an enthusiastic crowd like we did in Bergamo (where Italy beat Estonia 5-0) a month ago," Gattuso said.

His task was already complicated enough without the external political pressure of playing Israel, as direct qualification for the World Cup is seriously in doubt.

Only the winner of the five-team group is guaranteed an automatic spot and Italy sit second, level on nine points with Israel and six behind leaders Norway, but with a game in hand on both.

However Norway's far superior goal difference -- they have a 16-goal advantage over Italy -- means Gattuso's side can only top the group if they win all four of their remaining matches and Erling Haaland and company slip up before they travel to the San Siro next month.

That leaves second place and a spot in the play-offs as the likely route to the World Cup, a tournament in which Italy haven't played a knockout fixture since winning it in 2006.

Italy exited at the qualification play-off stage for the last two World Cups, failing to reach the 2022 edition in Qatar despite being reigning European champions.

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