Demonstrators on Sunday breached a security barrier meant to keep opposing protest groups apart on the UCLA campus, and the two sides came face-to-face, at times screaming at one another and shoving back and forth, CNN reported.
The incident involved pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators who gathered to support an encampment protesting Israel's military campaign in Gaza, and a group of counter-protesters draped in Israeli flags who erected a video screen and speaker set-up.
CNN reported that police officers in riot gear were seen standing at a distance from the crowd, but university officials have said police will not intervene unless they feel students are in harm’s way.
The school’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, Mary Osako, confirmed in a statement that demonstrators had “breached” a barrier between the groups, and that there were “physical altercations” between protesters.
“UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken about the violence that broke out,” the statement said.
The incident is the latest in a series of anti-Israel protests that have swept through college campuses across the US.
Last week, at least 45 pro-Palestinian Arab protesters were arrested at Yale University after police in riot gear stormed the campus during a protest.
Two days earlier, as the protest was ongoing, a Jewish Yale student journalist was stabbed in the eye with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.
Previously, more than 100 people were arrested by New York Police Department officers on a preliminary charge of criminal trespass, as police entered Columbia University to disperse a pro-Palestinian Arab protest that began a day earlier.
On Wednesday, police arrested over a dozen people, including a local news photographer, at a pro-Palestinian Arab protest at the University of Texas at Austin.
On Saturday, at least 23 people were arrested for resisting law enforcement after officers responded to a pro-Palestinian Arab encampment at Indiana University.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Seventh Day of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)