A prestigious US university has said it suspended two student groups that organised protests on the Israel-Hamas escalation that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation”, AFP reports.

Gerald Rosberg, Columbia University’s chair of the special committee on campus safety, said Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace would be suspended throughout the fall semester.

“This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorised event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” he said in a statement.

Rosberg said the suspension would only be lifted if the two groups showed they were willing to comply with campus regulations.

Hundreds of Columbia students had walked out of lectures on Thursday, US media reported, to attend a protest organised by the two groups in which they called on Washington to push for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Some media reports said students at the Thursday protest called for the school to label Israel’s assault on Gaza a “genocide,” and demanded the university boycott and divest from Israeli institutions.