It was a violent night at pro-Palestinian protests that have overtaken several college campuses across the country.
On UCLA's campus, dueling groups of protesters clashed late on Wednesday. Protesters on both sides got into fights and some used sticks to attack each other.
The altercations happened at a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters. They had built plywood around their protest site. Pro-Israeli counter-protesters tried to pull the barricades down and that's when the confrontations started.
The incidents went on for several hours before police wearing riot gear formed lines and slowly separated the groups, the Associated Press reported.
The police intervention appeared to settle the protesters.
It is the second time in a few days that clashes broke out on the campus. On Sunday, fights broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters at UCLA.
The incident at the Los Angeles school came hours after on the other side of the country the New York City Police Department descended on Columbia University to disperse anti-Israeli protesters who had taken over Hamilton Hall about 12 hours earlier.
According to officials, those arrested inside the academic building will be charged with third-degree burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing.
Others arrested outside the building are expected to be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The NYPD could not confirm the number of arrests to HNGN but CNN reported that the number of arrests topped 200.
Protests have spread across U.S. college campuses calling on the schools to divest from companies that support the war in Gaza. As of Wednesday morning, police on multiple college campuses have taken action to remove protesters.
In the southwest, police at the University of Arizona used a "chemical irritant" to clear pro-Palestinian protesters on campus early Wednesday morning. Campus police had ordered the crowd to disperse immediately from what they deemed an "unlawful assembly." When they refused the police advanced in the area of University Blvd & Park Ave. shortly after midnight.
In the upper Midwest, police cleared out a pro-Palestinian encampment on the UW-Madison campus, just two days after it was built, according to Reuters, adding that all but one tent was removed by 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
