Violent skirmishes broke out on Wednesday on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators, a live video coverage by a US broadcaster revealed.
According to the UCLA student publication Daily Bruin, supporters of Israel attempted to knock down a pro-Palestinian protest campsite on campus.
Police were responding to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block’s call for assistance, said Zach Seidl, Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Communications, on X.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, followed by an Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory, has sparked the largest outpouring of US student action since the 2020 anti-racism rallies.
Aerial footage from KABC, an ABC affiliate, showed people using sticks or poles attacking wooden planks set up as a temporary barricade to defend pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom held placards or umbrellas.
Late on Tuesday, New York City police detained scores of pro-Palestinian activists holed up in an academic building on Columbia University’s campus in New York and dismantled a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had attempted to destroy for nearly two weeks.
With report from Reuters
