California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA
Hundreds of helmeted police made their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) early on Thursday in a move to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters, reports Reuters.
The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on US college campuses, where protests over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.
According to Reuters, live footage from the scene showed that starting around sunset on Wednesday, officers in tactical gear began filing on to the UCLA campus adjacent to a complex of tents occupied by throngs of demonstrators.
Local television station KABC-TV estimated 300 to 500 were hunkered down inside the camp, while about 2,000 more had gathered outside the barricades in support.
But the assembled police stood by on the periphery of the tents for hours before finally starting to force their way into the encampment at about 3.15 am PDT (10.15am GMT) to arrest occupants who refused to leave. The raid was led by a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers carrying shields and batons, reports Reuters.
According to the news agency, demonstrators, some carrying makeshift shields and umbrellas, sought to block the officers’ advance by their sheer numbers, while shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of the police.
The New York Times reported that police were “tearing through barricades on one side of the encampment outside Royce Hall at UCLA”. Jonathan Wolfe, reporting from UCLA wrote at approx 3.22am PDT: “Officers are pulling apart plywood and other materials that protesters had used to build a wall around them. The other side of the encampment appears to be holding for now.”
Some protesters had been seen donning hard hats, goggles and respirator masks in anticipation of the siege a day after the university declared the encampment unlawful.
Reuters reports that hundreds of other pro-Palestinian activists who assembled outside the tent city jeered police with shouts of “shame on you”, some banging on drums and waving Palestinian flags, as officers marched on to the campus grounds. Many wore the traditional Palestinian scarves called keffiyehs.
A much smaller group of demonstrators waving Israeli flags urged on the police to shut down the encampment, yelling, “Hey hey, ho-ho, the occupation has got to go”.
Prior to moving in, police urged demonstrators in repeated loudspeaker announcements to clear the protest zone, occupying a plaza about the size of a football field between the landmark twin-tower auditorium Royce Hall and the main undergraduate library.
Key events
Sergio Almos, a Cal Matters investigative reporter who is at UCLA, has posted footage on X he says shows police fire an impact munition:
Another clip shows an officer ordering protesters to move back before what appear to be more impact munitions are fired:
According to the latest update from Reuters, live TV footage showed about six protesters at UCLA under arrest, kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs with zip-ties.
Dozens of loud explosions were heard during the clash from flashbang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.
According to Reuters, demonstrators, some carrying makeshift shields and umbrellas, sought to block the officers’ advance by their sheer numbers, while shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of the police.
Others on the opposite side of the camp gave up quickly, and were seen walking away with their hands over their heads under police escort, adds Reuters.
A protester has told the BBC that police have started “detaining people around the edges and at the entrance of the encampment”.
Ben Kersten, from Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA, spoke to the BBC from the protest and told the broadcaster that police had been setting off flashbangs.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
Here are some of the latest images that have come in on the newswires:
The Associated Press has more on the latest at UCLA:
Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the UCLA campus after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after counter-protesters attacked a tent encampment on the campus.
The law enforcement effort comes after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it in support.
The sound of flash bangs could be heard as police moved in.
Police methodically ripped apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and trash dumpsters and made an opening toward dozens of tents of demonstrators. Police also began to pull down canopies and tents.
Demonstrators were holding umbrellas like shields as they faced off with dozens of officers. Some of the protesters warned their fellow demonstrators to be ready with water in case police release teargas or other irritant.
California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA
Hundreds of helmeted police made their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) early on Thursday in a move to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters, reports Reuters.
The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on US college campuses, where protests over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.
According to Reuters, live footage from the scene showed that starting around sunset on Wednesday, officers in tactical gear began filing on to the UCLA campus adjacent to a complex of tents occupied by throngs of demonstrators.
Local television station KABC-TV estimated 300 to 500 were hunkered down inside the camp, while about 2,000 more had gathered outside the barricades in support.
But the assembled police stood by on the periphery of the tents for hours before finally starting to force their way into the encampment at about 3.15 am PDT (10.15am GMT) to arrest occupants who refused to leave. The raid was led by a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers carrying shields and batons, reports Reuters.
According to the news agency, demonstrators, some carrying makeshift shields and umbrellas, sought to block the officers’ advance by their sheer numbers, while shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of the police.
The New York Times reported that police were “tearing through barricades on one side of the encampment outside Royce Hall at UCLA”. Jonathan Wolfe, reporting from UCLA wrote at approx 3.22am PDT: “Officers are pulling apart plywood and other materials that protesters had used to build a wall around them. The other side of the encampment appears to be holding for now.”
Some protesters had been seen donning hard hats, goggles and respirator masks in anticipation of the siege a day after the university declared the encampment unlawful.
Reuters reports that hundreds of other pro-Palestinian activists who assembled outside the tent city jeered police with shouts of “shame on you”, some banging on drums and waving Palestinian flags, as officers marched on to the campus grounds. Many wore the traditional Palestinian scarves called keffiyehs.
A much smaller group of demonstrators waving Israeli flags urged on the police to shut down the encampment, yelling, “Hey hey, ho-ho, the occupation has got to go”.
Prior to moving in, police urged demonstrators in repeated loudspeaker announcements to clear the protest zone, occupying a plaza about the size of a football field between the landmark twin-tower auditorium Royce Hall and the main undergraduate library.
“More than six hours after police at the University of California, Los Angeles, first issued an order for protesters to leave the encampment or face arrest, the police are moving in,” writes Jonathan Wolfe, reporting from the UCLA for the New York Times.
According to an update from Wolfe that was posted about 20 minutes ago: “Police officers tried again to enter the staircase leading into the UCLA encampment, but protesters blocked them with wooden pallets and homemade shields. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the officers for several minutes before some officers appeared to pull back. Protesters chanted: ‘Cops go home!’”
Earlier, Wolfe had reported that police officers had entered the encampment using a “staircase that protesters had been using to enter and exit”. According to Wolfe, a “loud bang” was heard as officers entered and they then “set up a line”. He described protesters surrounding the officers and filming them. Wolfe reports that the protesters then linked arms and chanted: “Free, free, Palestine.”
Police reinforcements arrive at UCLA, reports the BBC
The BBC reports that at least three buses carrying police reinforcements appeared to have arrived at UCLA.
“We’ve just seen several dozen police officers get out of coaches near to the pro-Palestinian encampment,” writes the BBC.
“A hundred or so officers appear to be moving into the encampment, ripping the makeshift defences from protesters’ hands and attempting to force their way through the crowd,” it reports.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the reports.
Here are some of the latest images coming in from UCLA on the newswires:
Jon Henley
Jon Henley is the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, based in Paris.
With the exception of France, where students at the prestigious Sorbonne and Sciences Po universities have staged high-profile sit-ins and demonstrations, the pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses have so far found scant echo in Europe.
French riot police this week removed dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after about 50 protesters pitched tents in its main courtyard, unveiled a large Palestinian flag and chanted slogans in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Last week, three days of protests rocked the Paris Institute of Political Studies, better known as Sciences Po, an elite institution that numbers multiple presidents – including Emmanuel Macron – and prime ministers among its alumni.
About 200 pro-Palestinian students, backed by a number of radical left-wing MPs, tried to occupy an amphitheatre and on Friday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators faced each other in a standoff before being separated by riot police.
The protest ended peacefully after the protesters agreed to evacuate the building and stop disrupting classes and exams, while Sciences Po promised to drop proceedings against them and examine grievances including links with Israeli universities.
However, a town hall meeting with university authorities later on Thursday could give rise to further protest action if students feel their demands have not been met, students have warned.
In Italy, dozens of students and nearly 30 police officers were injured last month in a crackdown on a pro-Palestinian protest outside Rome’s La Sapienza university, with images of police using truncheons against students sparking a political row.
The university expressed sorrow over the Gaza conflict but rejected student demands for a boycott of scientific research and other accords with Israel. Student marches were also blocked by police in the Tuscan cities of Florence and Pisa in February.
In Spain, about 50 students at the University of Valencia have been staging a sit-in since the beginning of this week in protest at the institution’s links to Israeli universities.
One student told the online newspaper ElDiario.es: “We’re calling for an end to all the links that this university and others have with the different Israeli institutions and businesses that in different ways support the Zionist, apartheid regime.”
In other EU countries, including Germany, students have opted to stage their protests off-campus, taking part in larger pro-Palestinian marches and demonstrations but leaving universities mostly undisturbed.
In Greece, a group of students briefly demonstrated in front of the Israeli embassy in Athens, holding a banner reading: “Solidarity with the university students in the US. No to the genocide in Gaza. Free Palestine – Student Unions of Athens.”