Police clear pro-Palestinian encampment at University of Southern California

LOS ANGELES, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Southern California (USC), a renowned private research university located in Los Angeles, was cleared by police early Sunday.

USC President Carol Folt said in a statement that USC Department of Public Safety, with the assistance of the Los Angeles Police Department, removed the occupiers who had rebuilt their illegal encampment in the university's Alumni Park.

"The operation was peaceful," said Folt. "Over the last few weeks, the university exercised patience and restraint as we worked to de-escalate a volatile situation."

"In 64 minutes, the encampment was abandoned and cleared. The operation was peaceful with no arrests. We will not tolerate illegal encampments of any kind at USC," said Folt.

A number of protesters, including students and non-students, started a "Gaza Solidarity Occupation" at the Alumni Park about two weeks ago as pro-Palestinian demonstrations were spreading on campuses across the United States amid the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza.

Over 90 protesters at USC were arrested on April 24 after clashes with police, but they returned soon and rebuilt the encampment.

According to USC's student-led Annenberg Media, Nancy Alonzo, the assistant director of the USC Village Residential Colleges, came to the outskirts of the encampment on Saturday evening with a letter saying that "the encampment has to go down, as we have mentioned before."

Early Sunday morning, a large number of police officers moved in and the encampment was "completely cleared" before 5:30 a.m. local time (1230 GMT), said Annenberg Media.

The USC pro-Palestinian camp clearance came days after the mass arrest of over 200 pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday morning as police dismantled an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Over the last two weeks, at least 2,000 arrests have been made on campuses nationwide, according to the New York Times tally.