Clashes erupt at UCLA between rival groups as Gaza war protests rock US campuses
- Police respond to violent clashes at the University of California campus in Los Angeles
- Student protests over the Israel-Gaza war have popped up at many US universities
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Clashes broke out on Wednesday at pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as dozens of universities around the United States struggle to contain similar protests.
Protesters and counterprotesters were seen clashing with sticks, and tearing down metal barricades, TV footage showed.
Others were seen launching fireworks or hurling objects at each other in the dark – lit up with laser pointers and bright flashlights. Tear smoke was also fired at rival protesters, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The Los Angeles police department said on social media platform X that “officers have been deployed, and are currently on the UCLA campus, to assist in restoring order”.
The force, which was still present in large numbers as of 4am (1100 GMT), had earlier said it was responding “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment” after the university asked for help to quell the clashes.
UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block warned ahead of clashes that protesters including “both members of the UCLA community and others unaffiliated with our campus” had set up a camp last week.
“Many of the demonstrators, as well as counterdemonstrators who have come to the area, have been peaceful in their activism,” Block warned in a letter posted on the university website on Tuesday.
“But the tactics of others have frankly been shocking and shameful. We have seen instances of violence.”
“These incidents have put many on our campus, especially our Jewish students, in a state of anxiety and fear,” he said.
Anger spikes at US universities as Israel-Gaza war protests intensify
LA mayor Karen Bass said the violence was “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable”.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
The protests have swept through US higher education institutions like wildfire, with many student protesters erecting tent encampments on campuses from coast to coast.
University of Arizona police said on Wednesday morning they were “deploying chemical irritant munitions” to disperse “an unlawful assembly”.
In another of the newest clashes, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in on Tuesday to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters in a tense showdown.
A week-long occupation was also brought to an end at northern California’s Cal Poly Humboldt while Portland State University’s campus, in Oregon, was closed Tuesday “due to an ongoing incident” in the library.
Local media reported around 50 protesters had broken into the building a day earlier.
And Brown University reached an agreement in which student protesters will remove their encampment in exchange for the institution holding a vote on divesting from Israel – a major concession from an elite American university.
Footage of police in riot gear summoned at various colleges has been viewed around the world.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced concern at the heavy-handed steps taken to disperse the campus protests, saying “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society”.
The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
During their attack, militants also seized hostages, 129 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Additional reporting by Reuters
