More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the last two weeks in the US. (File)
Los Angeles, United States:
In-person classes will resume Monday at the University of California, Los Angeles, college officials said, after being moved online following clashes on campus between pro-Palestinian protesters and police.
Demonstrations against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have rocked US campuses across the country for weeks, prompting crackdowns, mass arrests and a White House directive to restore order.
UCLA said Friday it moved classes online after a large police contingent forcibly cleared a large campsite. Clashes also broke out between protesters and pro-Israel counter-protesters.
“The campus will return to regular operations (on Monday)… and plans to remain that way for the rest of the week,” read a statement posted Sunday on the university’s website.
“A police presence continues to be stationed on campus to help promote safety,” the post added.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said “urgent changes” were needed in campus security operations, adding that a new office would lead the effort.
“It is clear that UCLA needs a unit and a leader whose sole responsibility is campus safety to guide us through tense times,” he said in a statement Sunday.
Rick Braziel, former chief of the Sacramento Police Department, has been named to lead the office.
More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the last two weeks in the United States, some during violent clashes with police, giving rise to accusations of excessive force.
President Joe Biden, who has faced pressure from all political sides over the conflict in Gaza, said “order must prevail” on US campuses.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report using official Israeli data.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered territory.
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