French dock workers at a southern port were Thursday blocking the shipment of military material bound for Israel in protest at Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza, their union said.

The stevedores at the port in Fos-sur-Mer outside Marseille have refused to load crates of links used to assist the rapid fire of bullets aboard the cargo vessel, the CGT trade union said.

Links are small metal pieces, used to connect machine gun bullets and allow rapid bursts of fire. There has been concern in media and among rights groups that they have likely been used against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Christophe Claret, leader of the dock workers in the port, said they had been notified that the ship was due to be loaded on Thursday with the material.

"We managed to identify it and set it aside," he told AFP, emphasising that once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them. The other containers for the ship will all be loaded.

According to the union,........

© Al Monitor