Wednesday Briefing: Clashes Escalate on U.S. Campuses

Students seized a building at Columbia University yesterday. Credit…Bing Guan for The New York Times

Tensions rise on U.S. campuses

Clashes between the police, university administrators and protesters over the war in Gaza intensified at U.S. universities.

Columbia University in New York said it would expel students who had occupied a school building as part of a pro-Palestinian demonstration early yesterday. The students behind a larger campus encampment said an “autonomous subgroup” had seized the building.

Police officers have made new arrests at schools in California, North Carolina, Georgia and other states. In Virginia, officers used pepper spray at a campus on Monday. At the University of Texas, state troopers in riot gear broke up an encampment and arrested about 50 people.

But there were signs that some protests might be waning. Police officers ended the eight-day occupation of an administration building at a state school in California. And encampments at Yale and the University of Pittsburgh appeared to have been vacated.

In the Middle East: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel once again vowed to invade Rafah, in southern Gaza. The move could undermine efforts to negotiate a cease-fire agreement after nearly seven months of war.