The New York Police Department (NYPD) officers have arrested nearly 300 pro-Palestinian protesters from three campuses within 24 hours, according to the NYPD and media reports.

The NYPD arrested 173 protesters from the City College of New York and 109 from Columbia University in separate operations on Tuesday night, according to a press conference by the NYPD on Wednesday morning.

NYPD officers detained 15 pro-Palestinian protesters from Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus on Wednesday afternoon, reports said.

The NYPD cleaned an encampment on the campus which was set up on Wednesday as classes in both the City College of New York and Columbia University's Morningside Campus went fully remotely.

The NYPD employed drones before entering the Hamilton Hall of Columbia University once occupied by protesters and police radios were encrypted during the operation, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who served as a police officer in New York for over two decades.

Fordham University asked the NYPD to be on campus through at least May 22 while the NYPD was required to have their presence on Columbia University's Morningside Campus at least until May 17.

The NYPD responded to about 1,100 protests and demonstrations across the city since the outbreak of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, accounting for 45.8 percent of the total in New York City, said New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban.

Pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on U.S. university campuses were seen as part of the national protests against war and a call for peace in Gaza. 

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