New Delhi:

Student protests against the Israeli military assault on Gaza following the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel have spread to several countries.

Here is a round-up of the main campaigns.

Pro-Palestinian Protests In US

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US university campuses since April 17, often erecting tent camps to protest against the soaring death count in the Gaza Strip. 

Nearly 2,000 people have been detained, according to US media, in demonstrations reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War.

In recent days, police have forcibly dismantled several student sit-ins, including one at New York University at the request of its administrators. 

Demonstrators barricaded inside Columbia University, the epicentre in New York of the student protests, complained of police brutality when officers cleared the faculty. 

At the University of California, Los Angeles, hundreds of police emptied a camp, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protesters.

Dozens of police in riot gear used chemical sprays to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Virginia, student paper The Cavalier Daily reported.

Officers ripped away umbrellas some of the protesters wielded as shields, scuffled with a few, and tore down tents, according to a video posted by the newspaper.

Brown University in Rhode Island reached an agreement with students to remove their camp from the grounds in exchange for it considering divesting from “companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza”.

President Joe Biden broke his silence on the protests on Thursday, insisting “order must prevail”.

Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators In France

Police on Friday forcibly evacuated protesters from a pro-Gaza sit-in at Sciences Po in Paris, the country’s top political science school. 

Officials said 91 people were arrested. 

Sciences Po interim administrator Jean Basseres rejected a student demand to examine the institution’s links with Israeli universities.

Outside the nearby Sorbonne University, the Union of Jewish Students in France set up a “dialogue table” on Friday. 

“Jewish students have their place in this dialogue,” said Joann Sfar, a comic-book artist invited as a guest speaker. 

He said he understood why students were “outraged by what’s going on in the Middle East”. 

At Paris-Dauphine University, administrators banned a conference involving Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian expert in international law who has been vocal in condemning “genocide” in Gaza. 

The ban, introduced on the grounds there was a risk of public disorder, has been overturned by the judicial authorities.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned the university blockades at Sciences Po and other French universities that “prevented debate”.

Anti-Israel Protests In Germany

Police intervened on Friday to evacuate protesters outside Humboldt University in central Berlin. 

A number of demonstrators were “forcibly” removed after refusing to decamp to another location, police said.

Berlin mayor Kai Wegner criticised the protest, saying on X, formerly Twitter, that the city didn’t want to see events like those in the United States or France.

Students Protest In Canada

Students have protested against the war in Gaza in several cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Hundreds of demonstrators have joined the first and largest camp, at Montreal’s McGill University, in the face of threats of police clearance.

They have vowed to remain there until McGill cuts all financial and academic ties with Israel. 

University administrators said on Wednesday they wanted the camp removed immediately, alleging that certain protesters were not members of the student body. 

Pro-Gaza Sit-In In Australia

Hundreds of rival supporters of Gaza and Israel faced off at Sydney University on Friday, shouting slogans and waving flags. 

Except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counter-protest passed off peacefully.  

Pro-ceasefire demonstrators have been camped for 10 days on a green lawn in front of the university. They want it to cut ties with Israeli institutions and reject funding from arms companies. 

Pro-Palestinian Protests In Ireland

Students at Trinity College Dublin University began a sit-in on Friday, describing the protest as a “solidarity encampment with Palestine”.

Students Protest In Mexico

Dozens of students from the country’s largest university, UNAM, set up a camp in the capital on Thursday, chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will overcome”.

They want the Mexican government to sever all ties with Israel.

Students In Switzerland Demand Gaza Ceasefire

About 100 students have since Thursday been occupying the entrance of a building at Lausanne University, calling for an academic boycott of Israel and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

The peaceful sit-in is due to continue until Monday. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A video circulating online shows two anti-Israel protesters at New York University struggling to explain the purpose of the demonstrations. The clip, posted on X by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, shows a young woman at an NYU protest site fumbling when asked “why” they were there.

“I think the main goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stop…I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing,” she admitted.

When asked if there was “something NYU is doing,” the student responded, “I really don’t know, I’m pretty sure they are.” 

Turning to her friend, she asked if she knew what NYU was doing? The friend, wearing a mask, responded, “About what?” The first woman then asked, “About Israel. Why are we protesting, here at NYU specifically?” The friend responded, “I wish I was more educated.” 

The first student said she came from Columbia: “We came down, they said NYU needed our support. I’ve heard there are lot of cops and people were saying it was getting dangerous.”

????VIDEO: A REAL interview we had at NYU:

QUESTION: “Why are you protesting?”

PROTESTER #1: “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure there’s something about Israel [turns to other person] Why are we protesting?”

PROTESTER #2: “I wish I was more educated.”

PROTESTER #1: “I’m not either.” pic.twitter.com/8aB2ZoTCCk

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) April 24, 2024

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani commented on the video, saying, “The young woman in this video is the perfect example of the modern American Left and their indoctrination of young people. They don’t know what they’re doing and are serving as tools to something much more sinister,” reported Fox News. “She’s just one of many examples of the deterioration of our education system here in America,” he said. 

The protester in the video is a Fordham University student, who traveled to Columbia and NYU to support other demonstrators. More than 150 protesters at NYU were arrested on Monday. However, protests continued at NYU on Wednesday following a walkout the day before.

Students at universities across the US are staging encampments to protest the war in Gaza and US support for Israel. Alongside calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, students are demanding an end to US military aid to Israel and university disinvestments from companies benefitting from the conflict. They are also seeking relief for students and faculty disciplined or fired for taking part in anti-Israel protests. 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

A Gaza hospital strike that killed at least 200 people has unleashed a torrent of condemnation across the Arab world, with even allies blaming Israel for the attack, despite its denials.

The denunciations coincided with angry rallies in Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Iran and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with more planned on Wednesday following calls for a “day of rage” across the region.

Israel and Palestinian terrorists have traded blame for the hospital strike on Tuesday night, with the Israeli army saying on Wednesday it had “evidence” that terrorists were responsible.

But the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, condemned the “Israeli” attack which came as Israel lays siege to Gaza.

“The United Arab Emirates strongly condemns the Israeli attack… resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of people,” the UAE’s official WAM news agency said early on Wednesday.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry “expressed the Kingdom of Bahrain’s condemnation and strong denunciation of the Israeli bombing”, the Bahrain News Agency said.

Morocco, another country that recognised Israel in 2020, also blamed it for the strike, as did Egypt, which became the first Arab country to normalise relations in 1979.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned in the strongest terms “the Israeli bombing” of the Ahli Arab hospital, which led to “the deaths of hundreds of innocent victims” among the Palestinian citizens in Gaza.

He called the “deliberate bombing” a “clear violation of international law”.

Saudi Arabia, which has ended talks on potential ties with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war flared, called the blast a “heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces”.

‘War crime’

Jordan said Israel “bears responsibility for this grave incident” while Qatar, which has close ties to Hamas, slammed the “brutal massacre”.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, also blaming Israel, called it “a war crime, a crime against humanity, and organised state terrorism”.

Gulf Cooperation Council secretary general Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said it was “glaring evidence of the serious violations by the Israeli occupation forces”.

The Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on Tuesday for leaders to “stop this tragedy immediately”.

“What diabolical mind intentionally bombards a hospital and its defenceless inhabitants?” he wrote on X, previously Twitter.

The strike came during a wave of deadly Israeli air strikes on Gaza following an attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas that killed 1,400 people.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement called for a “day of rage” against Israel following the attack as hundreds rallied at the US and French embassies overnight, where they scuffled with security forces.

More protests are planned for Wednesday, with Lebanon joining other Arab states in declaring a day of national mourning.

Iraq, which also blamed Israeli authorities, demanded an “immediate and urgent resolution” from the UN Security Council to stop Israel’s Gaza onslaught, as hundreds protested in the capital Baghdad, brandishing Palestinian flags.

Algeria condemned the strike as a “barbaric act” carried out by “occupation forces.”

Libya’s Tripoli-based internationally recognised government called the hospital strike a “despicable crime” as several hundred people protested in Tripoli and other Libyan cities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)