International Desk

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups have clashed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as demonstrations over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza continue across US campuses resulting in hundreds of arrests and ever-heightening tensions.

Nationwide rallies showed no sign of stopping over the weekend.

At UCLA on Sunday, "physical altercations broke out" after a barrier separating the two sides was breached, an official said.

The White House has insisted that demonstrations must remain peaceful.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC that the US government respects the right of protesters demonstrating over the Israel-Gaza war.

But he condemned antisemitic incidents that have been reported, as well as "all the hate speech and the threats of violence out there".

At UCLA, a pro-Palestinian encampment has grown in size in recent days, as has a group of pro-Israeli counter-protesters.

The Israeli American Council (IAC) organised the counter-protest. It recently said it had "profound concern" over the antisemitism reported elsewhere, including at Columbia University in New York City.

Many pro-Palestinian protesters who spoke to the BBC there sought to distance themselves from antisemitic incidents. In some cases they have blamed outside agitators.

A group of 21 Democratic members of Congress has called on Columbia to end what they call the "unauthorised and impermissible encampment of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish activists on campus", in a letter obtained by Axios. Similar calls for action had largely come from the Republican side of the political divide.

In a fresh statement on Monday, Columbia head Dr Minouche Shafik said "alternative internal options to end this crisis" were under discussion, after talks between protest organisers and the university failed to result in a deal.

At least some of the protesters involved in the disturbances at UCLA appeared to have come from outside the university, the Reuters news agency reported.

The two groups remained peaceful until Sunday, when campus police with batons separated them as they pushed and shoved each other, and traded punches.

It was not immediately clear which group broke through the barrier between them.

"We are heartbroken about the violence that broke out," the university said, adding that additional security measures had been introduced.

Tensions flared at US universities after the 7 October Hamas attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed in Israel, and the retaliatory Israeli military assault that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza.

In the last fortnight, a nationwide uprising has emerged which university officials and law enforcement have struggled to contain. They have blamed outside groups for infiltrating the demos.

Source: BBC