Police clear protesters in US university

The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion, with police carrying riot shields bursting into a building that protesters took over the previous night and making dozens of arrests. On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesday between dueling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Late on Tuesday, hundreds of New York Police Department officers filed into a building that was taken over by pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus of Columbia University earlier in the day and began making arrests. So far, more than 1,000 arrests have been made nationwide, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 pm as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and shields, massed at the Ivy League university's entrance in Manhattan.

Officers entered Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, on the second floor to clear out the structure.

Dozens of Emergency Service Unit officers entered the campus a few minutes later, but were blocked from entering the barricaded building through the front door, the New York Post reported.

The NYPD then sent its Mobile Adjustable Ramp System to the second floor, where the officers broke a window to enter, the Post reported.

The protesters were taken away on three NYPD buses.

A statement released by a Columbia University spokesperson said the police entered the campus after the university requested help. A tent encampment at the school grounds to protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza was cleared.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests at Columbia University, said he opposed the university's decision to call in police.

"This is too intense," he said. "It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation."

The arrests occurred after protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon the encampment on Monday or be suspended.

Before the tents were cleared, Neel Murty, a 21-year-old engineering student, told China Daily about protesters still in the tent encampment, "If they need to go to the bathroom, they don't even leave for that, because people don't want to leave the tent knowing it might be removed."

In Los Angeles, violent clashes erupted on Wednesday on the campus of UCLA between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counterdemonstrators, according to live video coverage provided by a US broadcaster.

The UCLA student newspaper Daily Bruin said supporters of Israel had tried to tear down a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the campus.

Others were seen launching fireworks or hurling objects at each other in the dark, lit up with laser pointers and bright flashlights.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the violence "absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable" on social media platform X and said police officers were on the scene.

Police have swept through other campuses across the US over the last two weeks.

In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

Brown University, another member of the Ivy League, reached an agreement on Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators said they would close their encampment in exchange for administrators taking a vote to consider divestment in October. The compromise appeared to mark the first time a US college has agreed to vote on divestment in the wake of the protests.

The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct 7.

Negotiations going on

As cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn't clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Tuesday to launch an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.

During his meeting with the families of hostages held in Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel had begun evacuating Palestinian civilians from Rafah, according to his office.

In response to Netanyahu's statements on Rafah, Palestinian Presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Israel would not dare to continue its assault in Gaza without US support.

"The blind US bias toward Israel, and its protection from punishment and submission to international legitimacy, has proven that the US administration has become a partner in Netanyahu's crimes and bears full responsibility for the continuation of genocide," said Rudeineh.

Agencies, Xinhua and Rena Li in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at aiheping@chinadailyusa.com.