Over 2,000 people arrested at U.S. campus protests

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at colleges and universities since April 18 as a growing wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests ripples across the US, CNN reports.

At the University of California, Los Angeles more than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus.

At Portland State University at least 30 people were arrested Thursday at the school, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

Eight days after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up in the center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school has written a letter to the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office asking for more police resources, a school spokesperson told CNN on Thursday. According to the university, protest activity began to escalate overnight and has steadily continued.

The campus protests in support of Gaza have now spread to nearly 140 colleges in at least 45 states, according to a BBC tally. Demonstrators are demanding that academic institutions sever financial ties with Israel or companies that are connected to the Israeli military’s war in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden, in his first direct remarks about the wave of student unrest, has urged pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses to uphold the rule of law.

Students across other countries have joined the pro-Palestinian protests in recent days, including in Australia, France, Italy, Britain, Canada, as well as in Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt.