Clashes erupt on UCLA campus between pro-Palestinian supporters and counter-protesters

Protests amid ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at UCLA in Los Angeles

Protesters in support of Palestinians in Gaza help one another get their eyes rinsed, at an encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 1, 2024. REUTERS/David Swanson

Source: REUTERS

Violent clashes erupted on Wednesday on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators, according to live video coverage provided by a U.S. broadcaster.

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

Police were responding to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block's request for support, Zach Seidl, Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Communications, said on X.

The Oct. 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 U.S. student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.

Aerial footage from broadcaster KABC, an affiliate of ABC, showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters, some holding placards or umbrellas.

Late on Tuesday, New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed-up in an academic building on Columbia University campus in New York and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.

By Reuters