Los Angeles police officers intervened on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) on Wednesday, April 25, during a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza, Captain Kelly Muniz told reporters. When the demonstrators refused to leave the premises, the police “assisted the university by making arrests for trespassing,” she added. Ninety-three people were arrested, police announced.
“No injuries reported. Police patrols will continue in the area” Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a message posted on the social network X.
For its part, USC indicated on X around midnight that the protest was over and that the campus would remain “closed until further notice.” “Students, faculty, staff and those having business on campus may enter with proper identification,” the university added.
The pro-Palestinian demonstration at USC is part of a series of student demonstrations since October to protest the growing number of casualties in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has killed some 34,200 people, most civilians, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry.
The unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023 carried out by Hamas left 1,170 dead, mainly civilians, according to a report from Agence France-Presse (AFP) established from official Israeli data.
The latest wave of these protests originates at Columbia University in New York where dozens of arrests were made last week after university officials used the police to put an end to an accused occupation by several personalities to stir up anti-Semitism. Pro-Palestinian protests continued Wednesday on the Columbia campus.