Pro-Palestinian group praised by Hamas for using global dockworkers' strike to push Israel boycott

As thousands of dockworkers at more than 100 ports across the world took part on Friday in a protest against the use of their ports for arms shipments and the number of seafarers killed in wars, an anti-Israel group called 'No Harbour for Genocide' was praised by Hamas for taking part in organizing the protest and calling for a halt to shipments to Israel.

Dockworkers in Europe and around the world went on strike to protest the militarization of ports, with more than 100 ports affected and an estimated $2 billion lost due to the delays.

According to Reuters, strikers across 113 ports in 22 countries also called for pay rises, better working conditions and the right to have doctors on board vessels crossing war zones.

"We will not work for their wars, and we will not become food for their cannons," Apostolos Kypraios, head of the Greek union of merchant marine engineers, told Reuters during a rally at the Greek port of Piraeus.

The pro-Palestinian group NHG, which was one of the organizers of the strike, reiterated the day's slogan in a message on their website, "Dockworkers do not work for war," and claimed that the strike left more than two billion dollars worth of cargo sitting idle in ports across the world.

They also claimed that Dockworkers' unions across Europe and the Mediterranean said that "the struggle against wars, genocides, and aggression, [was] closely linked to problems of the salary, working conditions, automation projects and the security and health of all docks and ports workers."

The declaration called for "ports not to be used for the transportation of arms, ammunition, equipment or military material and troops to war zones."

"Trade unions must step up vigilance, inform workers, expose war cargoes and organize constant, collective mass resistance using all available means," they demanded.

The group also set out seven demands: "The immediate end to the genocide of Palestinian people to the recognition of an independent Palestinian state; an end to US-Israel wars of aggression in the Middle East, full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan, alongside the defense of peoples’ sovereignty, territorial integrity, the right to resistance and self-determination," the unions wrote.

Calling for "an immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people," NHG demanded that "no arms, ammunition, military equipment, or troops" would be sent to war through their docks. They also asked that "no ports be turned into military bases," and finished the statement by saying "no to rearmament and the war economy."

Across Europe, the protesters held signs at major ports saying "no to war, no to armament," and "embargo on Zionism now."

Hamas support for NHG's day of action 

Hamas released a statement on Friday, commending "the global labor solidarity movement with the Gaza Strip, which is being carried out by more than 25 labor unions representing workers at 113 seaports across 22 countries worldwide."

The statement upholds NHG's day of action as a prime example for groups around the world, asking them to join NHG and expand its scope of influence.

Hamas "urges them to continue acts of solidarity with our people in the Gaza Strip and to express their categorical rejection of the transfer of arms and military equipment to the occupying entity [Israel] - an entity that continues to commit acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people, in flagrant violation of humanitarian and international laws and norms."

"We extend our greetings and appreciation to the unions, syndicates, and labor groups participating in this movement," the statement added.

The No Harbour for Genocide movement

"NO FUEL. NO ARMS. NO HARBOUR FOR GENOCIDE," the NHG website's homepage exclaims. It claims to function as a resource for trade unions, port workers, legal experts, and more who are " seeking to stop the maritime transfers sustaining Israel’s genocidal war machine."

The movement claims to have tracked 315 shipments of components for Elbit Systems, which moved through 56 commercial ports in 29 countries between August 2025 and September 2026, according to the NHG website. It also says it "tracked 3,400 shipments of cargo supplying US military bases through 67 ports in 42 countries," between December 2025 and September 2026. 

Its website has a database titled "What passes through this port," where dockworkers can track vessels that are " complicit in regularly supplying Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation of Palestine."

Ships that "exhibit a consistent pattern of involvement in supporting Israel's genocide" are split into subcategories depending on what they transport. The website encourages activists to block vessels that are not on its blacklist, that they don't know are in any way linked to Israel, if the dockworkers suspect they are " carrying military and dual use supplies to Israel."