British police arrested at least 12 Oxford University students and clashed with participants in a pro-Palestine sit-in on the institution’s premises, protesters said today.

Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) said university authorities called the police after students began protesting in administration offices, as part of the protests taking place at universities in Britain, the US and other countries over the war in Palestine. Gauze.

Thames Valley Police said they are aware of the incident and will release information later.

The university has not yet commented on today’s events, although in the past it has said it respects the right to freedom of expression in the form of peaceful protests.

In a video posted on social media by the OA4P organization, clashes are recorded between police officers and students who were sitting in the street blocking the passage of a police van, which it says was carrying arrested persons.

“Let them go,” chanted the protesters.

Protesters are calling for the university to cut ties with companies associated with Israel, which is at war with the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“It is clear that the administration would rather arrest, silence and attack its own students than face the fact that it is enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” the organization said in a message to X.

Speaking from the scene, Oxford political science student Kendall Gardner said police forcibly removed students. “We were faced with a lot of violence and hostility,” he told Reuters.