PRO-PALESTINIAN student protesters across the United States faced increasing pressure today from university authorities demanding an end to their actions.

At Columbia University in New York, the administration claimed to be making “important progress” with students who had set up a tent encampment, saying that it was extending a deadline for them to go, but confrontations remained tense.

Student protesters “have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents,” a university statement said, but a smaller encampment remained.

At California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, protesters started using furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block the building’s entrance on Monday evening.

They chanted: “We are not afraid of you,” before riot police pushed into them.

Both campuses are part of intensifying demonstrations over the Gaza crisis by university students demanding that their institutions cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its months-long military campaign. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.

On Tuesday night, police detained more than 200 protesters at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, near the home of Senator Chuck Schumer.

The protest, demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, was organised by Jewish Voice for Peace on the second night of Passover.