Large Numbers of New York City Police Officers Begin Entering Columbia University Campus

NYPD officers in riot gear break into a building at Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment, in New York City on April 30, 2024. Columbia University normally teems with students, but a “Free Palestine” banner now hangs from a building where young protesters have barricaded themselves and the few wandering through campus generally appear tense. Students here were among the first to embrace the pro-Palestinian campus encampment movement, which has spread to a number of universities across the United States. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP) (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (AP) — Large numbers of New York City police officers have begun entering the Columbia University as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus. Demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall hours earlier Tuesday after setting up an encampment earlier in the month. Students had defiantly set up tents again after police on April 18 cleared an encampment at the university and arrested more than 100 people. The students had been protesting on the Manhattan campus since the previous day, opposing Israeli military action in Gaza and demanding the school divest from companies they claim are profiting from the conflict.