University of California is inundated with hundreds of anti-Israel protestors who set up barricades across campus before facing off with cops as 12 people are arrested

Police arrested at least a dozen anti-Israel protesters as they cleared a lecture hall and student camp at the University of California, Irvine.

The university issued an emergency alert on Wednesday declaring a “violent protest” after “a group of several hundred protesters entered the UC Irvine campus and began surrounding the natural sciences lecture hall.

Officers from ten nearby law enforcement agencies converged on campus in riot gear, clashed with protesters and cleared the encampment.

At least a dozen students were arrested, the newspaper said CNNwith many being secured with zip ties and led away by officers.

“Police retook the lecture hall,” said UC Irvine spokesman Tom Vasich. “The square has been cleared by law enforcement.”

Vasich said there were a “minimal number of arrests” and characterized the protesters as “begrudgingly cooperative.”

It took about four hours for police to clear the demonstrators from both the lecture hall and the square where the encampment had been located.

Shortly before nightfall, officers entered the lecture hall and became involved in a tense confrontation with protesters in the encampment.

Helmeted police with batons formed a line against demonstrators. They gradually moved forward, pushing the students back every few minutes, until officers charged into the crowd and made more arrests.

Most demonstrators then withdrew and police held the otherwise empty square littered with rubbish, while a few spectators remained on the outskirts.

According to CNN, 12 protesters were arrested, many of whom were zip-tied and led away

There was already an encampment at the university that had been there since April 29

The university said all classes would take place remotely on Thursday and asked employees not to come to campus.

The demonstration in Irvine, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, is the latest in a series of campus protests across the United States over the war in Gaza.

Activists have called for a ceasefire and the protection of civilian lives, while demanding that universities divest themselves of Israeli interests.

Protesters at UC Irvine set up an encampment next to the lecture hall on April 29, similar to those at other universities, leading to mass arrests and clashes with police elsewhere in the country.

On Wednesday, 200 to 300 protesters took over the lecture hall at a time when there were no classes, Vasich said.

Hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators descended on campus on Wednesday afternoon and took over a lecture hall

Police responded in riot gear and formed a barricade, while an officer warned the crowd over a loudspeaker that they had formed an unlawful assembly and risked arrest if they remained, the Orange County Register reported.

Students chanted slogans, beat drums and raised banners as lines of police stood nearby.

A banner hanging from the building called the place “Alex Odeh Hall,” in honor of a Palestinian activist who was killed in a 1985 office bombing in the nearby city of Santa Ana.

Four adjacent research buildings with possibly hundreds of people inside were placed on lockdown and those inside were ordered to shelter in place.

Since the day the camp began, Chancellor Howard Gillman said the university has been in discussions with students but has been unable to reach an agreement on finding a “suitable and non-disruptive” alternative location.

Protesters are calling for a ceasefire and demanding that the university renounce Israeli interests

Students chanted slogans, beat drums and raised banners as lines of police stood nearby

Gillman has said the university cannot selectively decide not to enforce rules against the illegal encampment, and that “the University of California has made it clear that it will not divest from Israel.”

“Protesters at the camp have focused most of their demands on actions that require the university to violate the academic freedom rights of faculty, the freedom of expression of faculty and fellow students, and the civil rights of many of our Jewish students,” said Gillman. Monday.

Protests have swept college campuses across the country over the past month, closing classes and arresting hundreds, starting in Columbia.