The St Louis Post Dispatch is reporting dozens of arrests at the Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, as students protesting Israel’s offensive on Gaza tried to set up an encampment, Al Jazeera reports.

The website said the exact number of people arrested was not immediately clear but included the Green Party’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein.

The Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Missouri) condemned the “heavy-handed response to a peaceful protest”, saying students “must be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights and to oppose Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation in Gaza”.