Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US college campuses after arrests at Columbia

Several hundred students and pro-Palestinian supporters held a protest at Yale University campus Picture: Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP

Columbia cancelled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public as some of the most prestigious US universities sought to defuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.

More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green were arrested last week, and similar encampments have sprouted up at universities around the country.