Police detained nearly 200 people at three US universities in a day as they cleared pro-Palestinian encampments, in the latest campus clashes triggered by protests over Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

According to AFP, on the East Coast, police in Boston detained about 100 people while clearing a protest camp at Northeastern University, with social media posts showing security forces in riot gear and officers loading tents onto the back of a truck.

The action was taken after some protesters resorted to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews’”, Northeastern University said in a statement on social media platform X.

On the opposite side of the country, Arizona State University police arrested 69 people for trespassing after the group set up an “unauthorised encampment” on campus. Arizona State officials said a protest group — “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff” — had set up a camp on Friday and then ignored repeated orders to disperse.

And in the US heartland, police at Indiana University arrested 23 people as they cleared a campus protest camp, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported. Police with shields, batons and other riot gear broke through a line of protesters who had linked arms, tackling those who did not move, the paper said.