Arrests at Columbia of Gaza protesters after NYPD raid

Over 300 pro-Palestinian protesters at New York City university campuses were arrested Tuesday night after hundreds of police officers raided a building the students had taken over.

Dramatic footage showed police climbing a ladder to enter Hamilton Hall, which had been occupied at Columbia University, and later removing people handcuffed with zip ties.

The university had earlier told any students involved to leave or face expulsion.

Officials have said the building was cleared and no injuries were reported.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said on Wednesday that nearly 300 people in total were arrested - including 119 at Columbia University and 173 from the nearby City College of New York - on charges of trespassing, criminal mischief and burglary.

The NYPD is still working to decipher who was affiliated with the university out of those who were arrested.

At Wednesday's news conference, New York Mayor Eric Adams said students had a "right to protest".

But he added: "There's nothing peaceful about barricading buildings, destroying property or dismantling security cameras."

The demonstrators want the university to divest from Israel over its continuing deadly military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The Columbia protest is one of dozens across the country, including at campuses in Texas, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, New Mexico, California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana, where police have arrested more than 1,000 protesters.

The Columbia arrests came just before violence erupted over the war in Gaza at another campus hundreds of miles away on the West Coast.

Lengthy clashes broke out early Wednesday morning between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of California in Los Angeles, after school administrators moved to shut down an encampment it called "unlawful".

Counter-demonstrators clad in black arrived at the campus around midnight local time, before trying to tear down barricades around the encampment, the LA Times reported. Video footage showed flares and fireworks being set off, while other clips showed scuffles between the groups.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the scenes "abhorrent and inexcusable" and said police officers had arrived at the campus.

In New York, meanwhile, school officials authorised police officers to enter Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after student demonstrators inside defied a deadline to disperse. One student told the BBC that around 80-100 police stormed the building.

Columbia said that after the hall was "occupied, vandalised and blockaded, we were left with no choice". In a letter to the New York Police Department (NYPD), President Minouche Shafik wrote that she requested police aid "with the utmost regret".

Officers said they used flashbang grenades to "disorient protesters" as the raid commenced, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Some students could be heard shouting "Shame on you!" at the officers as they entered the building around 21:30 EST.

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said those in the building tried to lock the police out, but officials were still able to gain access.

Some students alleged that police clad in riot gear manhandled demonstrators as they stormed the building, with one telling the BBC that three people had been pushed down the stairs by NYPD officers. The interview was cut short moments later after an officer interrupted and slammed shut a window through which the conversation had been happening.

NYPD assistant commissioner of public information, Carlos Nieves, defended the officers. He said that students had "barricaded" the doors to Hamilton Hall with "conference tables, chairs or soda machines". He alleged they had also blocked windows with newspaper so officers "couldn't see".

Huge cheers of support by anti-war crowds were heard as the arrested students were marched off with their hands in zip ties. People also chanted: "Let them go!"

The activists have been occupying a tent camp at the Ivy League school in upper Manhattan for nearly two weeks.

All was relatively quiet on Columbia's campus on Wednesday as non-essential visitors are not allowed to enter. Some Columbia students could be seen packing up their possessions with the help of their parents.

The school has gone fully remote, and it will retain NYPD officers on campus until 17 May.

National politicians have called on colleges to do more, highlighting reports of antisemitism at some of the demonstrations.

President Joe Biden earlier said demonstrations should be peaceful, but "forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful - it is wrong".

His Democratic colleague, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, condemned the police response at Columbia and urged Mayor Eric Adams to find a "de-escalatory path".

"This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety," she wrote. "A nightmare in the making. I urge the mayor to reverse course."

Another New York Democrat, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, attacked what he called "the militarisation of college campuses" by police.