NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — Classes were canceled Wednesday at University of California, Los Angeles, in one of the latest developments in a wave of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on universities across the U.S., including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and California State Polytechnic University in Humbolt.

In another development Wednesday, four law enforcement officers were injured as police removed protesters at University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Campus police spokesperson Marc Lovicott said a state trooper was hit in the head with a skateboard and three sheriff’s deputies suffered injuries “directly related to the physical resistance from protesters” as police tried to remove protesters’ tents from a central square. At least a dozen people were arrested.

Late Tuesday, police carrying riot shields burst into a building at Columbia University that pro-Palestinian protesters took over and broke up a demonstration that had paralyzed the campus and was the spark for other protests across the country.

The situation at UCLA overnight Tuesday into Wednesday included dueling groups of protesters, shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA, police wearing helmets and face shields formed lines and slowly separated the groups. That step appeared to calm the violence.

The clashes at UCLA took place around a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters, who erected barricades and plywood for protection — while counter-protesters tried to pull them down. People threw chairs and at one point a group piled on a person who lay on the ground, kicking and beating them with sticks until others pulled them out of the scrum.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the violence “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable” in a spot on social media platform X and said officers from the Los Angeles Police Department were on the scene. Officers from the California Highway Patrol also appeared to be there. The university said it had requested help.

Security was tightened Tuesday at the campus after officials said there were “physical altercations” between factions of protesters.

The protests at numerous colleges across the country are in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The wave of arrests on college campuses was a recent development, starting with an incident at Columbia University.

In some instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies. For example, Brown University reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus.

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