At least 15 people have been injuredone of them hospitalized, after a series of clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israeli counter-protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), within the framework of the pro-Palestinian protests on the country’s university campuses during the last two weeks and which have already led to more than a thousand arrests.

Protests have also continued on other campuses across the country, leaving more than 40 arrests during the day on Wednesday in the United States, with more than a thousand arrested in the last two weeks.

In Texas, police officers intervened at the University of Texas to arrest 17 protesters after they refused to remove the tents. And at the University of Buffalo, agents have detained 16 students and “other individuals not related” to the center after a request to leave the campus space, to which we must add 90 pro-Palestinian protesters, students and outsiders, were arrested this Wednesday at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.

Furthermore, after what happened at Columbia University This Tuesday (around 300 arrested), another 15 protesters were detained by the New York Police while dispersing a protest at Fordham University, where this number is expected to continue growing, according to authorities.

New conflicts at UCLA between pro-Palestinians and pro-Israels

After a day where there were already confrontations on the UCLA campus, this Wednesday they occurred again altercations between pro-Palestinian Protestants camped in place with pro-Israel groups who have come to campus.

Around dusk, officers in tactical gear began parading toward the UCLA campus adjacent to a complex of tents occupied by crowds of protesters. Some protesters were seen wearing helmets, goggles and respiratory masks in anticipation of the raid, a day after the university declared the camp illegal.

However, they did not act immediately, so a much smaller group of protesters waving Israeli flags charged at the police to close the camp, shouting: “Hey, ho-ho, the occupation has to go.” But Police officers stood on the periphery of the tents for hours awaiting orders from the commanders to remove the barricades and march towards the camp to arrest the occupiers who refused to leave.

Before entering, police urged protesters with a loudspeaker to clear the protest area, a demonstration that forced UCLA to cancel classes for the day after a violent confrontation between the camp’s occupants and a group of masked counterprotesters who staged a surprise Tuesday night assault on the tent city.

The occupants of the open-air protest camp, created last week, had remained peaceful before the melee, in which Both sides exchanged blows and sprayed each other with pepper spray.. Members of the pro-Palestinian group said they threw fireworks at them and beat them with bats and sticks. University officials blamed the riot on “instigators” and promised an investigation.

The confrontation lasted for two or three hours until early Wednesday morning before the police restored order, an event that was repeated a day later. A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom later criticized law enforcement’s “limited and delayed response on campuses.” When the police force entered the campus on Wednesday night to clear the encampment, some of the protesters were heard yelling at them: “Where were you yesterday?”

From the University of UCLA they have stated that campus operations would resume on a limited basis this Thursday and Friday after putting an end to the protests and confrontations that had intensified in the last two days.