Columbia will have ‘blood on its hands’ if police bring weapons to campus, say students: Live

After moving through the building, student protesters unfurled a banner over Hamilton Hall’s fascade. The banner read “Hinds Hall”.

The little girl had phoned emergency services and, over a period of more than three hours, begged for help after her family were killed around her in the car they were using to try to escape the war zone. Paramedics did arrive – but days later their ambulance was found destroyed near Hind’s family’s car. Two emergency workers were found dead.

Get all the details in our full story.

NYPD appear to be massing for a large-scale operation on the Columbia campus.

Officers in riot gear with zip ties were seen marching towards campus, and corrections buses were reported on their way to Columbia.

University officials sent an emergency management alert to those on campus, warning them to shelter in place, WKCR reports.

Scores of New York City police officers were reportedly massing on Tuesday evening outside the campus of Columbia University, where pro-Palestine activists began occupying a building earlier that day.

The police also reportedly cordoned off streets near campus.

Brown University announced on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with student leaders to end an encampment that’s been occupying part of campus in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.

The university agreed to meet with student activists to hear their arguments about divesting from companies with ties to Israel, and to vote on divestment later this year.

It noted that students involved in the encampment broke university code, but their agreement to disband the camp would be looked on favourably in future disciplinary actions.

“The devastation and loss of life in the Middle East has prompted many to call for meaningful change, while also raising real issues about how best to accomplish this,” Brown President Christina H Paxson wrote in a statement. “Brown has always prided itself on resolving differences through dialog, debate and listening to each other. I cannot condone the encampment, which was in violation of University policies. Also, I have been concerned about the escalation in inflammatory rhetoric that we have seen recently, and the increase in tensions at campuses across the country. I appreciate the sincere efforts on the part of our students to take steps to prevent further escalation.”

While much of the nation’s attention has been on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war protest at Columbia University, across the US, actions at California Polytechnic State University Humboldt may in fact have been the most intense anywhere in the nation.

Today, police conducted an operation on campus and arrested some 35 people.

Congressional Democrats sent a stern letter to the leadership of Columbia University, criticising the Ivy League school for the continued presence of activists occupying parts of campus in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.

“The time for negotiation is over; the time for action is now,” the letter, reported Tuesday by The Columbia Spectator student paper, read. “It is ultimately the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to act. If any Trustees are unwilling to do this, they should resign so that they can be replaced by individuals who will uphold the University’s legal obligations under Title VI.”

Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Daniel Goldman, Kathy Manning, and Jared Moskowitz all signed the message, among 17 others.

Various groups of students, and eventually North Carolina police and university administrators, all struggled back and forth with each other on Tuesday for control of a flag pole at the University of North Carolina.

Over the course of protests about the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday, the American flag was taken down and replaced with a Palestinian one multiple times.

UNC interim chancellor Lee Roberts eventually joined the fray, overseeing the reinstatement of the flag.

The university official said during a press conference that afternoon that the US flag would remain flying over UNC, and that its temporary replacement represented the views of a “small minority” of activists.

“The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, said on Tuesday.

He added that president Joe Biden believed the occupation was “not an example of peaceful protest.”

His comments come less than a week after the Biden administration signed a bill to send $26.4 billion to Israel to support its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Over 100 Columbia students were arrested two weeks ago during peaceful protests at the campus.

Pro-Palestinian student protests and encampments have popped up at dozens of universities throughout the US this month.

These pro-Palestinian protesters are, by-and-large, asking their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Their calls come amid Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which is believed to have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Their ongoing attacks come in the wake of 7 October, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 people hostage.

Here’s a look at the universities where students are staging demonstrations — and how administrators and local police have responded: