Pro-Palestinian rallies continue at US universities, more than thousand held

Many major U.S. universities continued to see large-scale pro-Palestinian demonstrations Wednesday, with media reporting some 400 people arrested since a day earlier amid clashes involving protesters and law enforcement on campuses nationwide.

At Columbia University in New York, police stormed into a residence hall Tuesday night to end an occupation of the building staged in protest of U.S. support for Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have continued since war broke out in October following attacks by the militant group Hamas.

The New York Police Department was also mobilized to respond to vandalism claims at the City College of New York amid large protests.

Some 300 people were arrested in connection with the incidents at the two campuses, New York Mayor Eric Adams told a press conference Wednesday morning.

Adams said he suspected that “outside agitators” and “professionals” tried to radicalize young people on the campuses, adding “I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.”

At the University of California, Los Angeles, brawls and confrontations erupted late Tuesday and early Wednesday between participants of a pro-Palestinian demonstration and others who backed Israel.

Similar incidents have caused unrest since last month on the campuses of Yale University, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas at Austin, among many others.

CNN reported that more than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with the protests on college and university campuses across the United States since April 18.