Clashes break out on UCLA campus

Clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators broke out at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus Tuesday night amid ongoing unrest at colleges across the country.

Violence erupted shortly before 11 p.m. local time, when a group of counterprotesters came to the pro-Palestinian encampment set up on campus to try to dismantle it, KTLA reported.

KTLA is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

The counter-protestors threw fireworks and tried to take away the metal fencing and plywood from the encampment, resulting in a series of skirmishes into the early morning, the outlet added.

“Yesterday some physical altercations occurred among demonstrators in Royce Quad,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications said Tuesday. “In response, we have taken several actions to significantly increase our security presence, including adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”

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It was not immediately clear how many people may have been injured in the skirmishes.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass confirmed shortly after 1:30 a.m. local time that Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers arrived on campus.

“The violence unfolding this evening at UCLA is absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable,” Bass wrote in a post on the social platform X.

UCLA campus police also briefly responded to the scene, KTLA reported.

The Hill reached out to UCLA and LAPD for further comment.

The clashes come as protests roil college campuses across the country, leading to the arrests and suspensions of hundreds of students. Demonstrators are calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, along with a halt in U.S. military aid to Israel.

Many of these protests have taken the form of encampments, where scores of students have been sleeping overnight. The encampment at UCLA is demanding the school divest all interests from Israel, KTLA reported.

Just hours before the violence erupted on the California campus, New York City officers moved into Columbia’s campus after student protests took over a campus building earlier in the day.

Columbia said the decision to call in NYPD was “made to restore safety and order to our community.”