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Pro-Palestine protesters swarmed and occupied the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia University in Manhattan early Tuesday (April 30) morning, hours after the school suspended students who refused to leave a camp set up on the campus in adherence to a deadline set by officials, NBC News reports.
The college's student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported that dozens of protesters had occupied the building, though the official number was not confirmed at the time of publication and said that the school's Morningside campus was restricted indefinitely Tuesday. Several protesters were heard comparing their actions to that of protesters of the Vietnam War who occupied the same building in 1968 after an NBC News reporter said they saw them smash windows.
“Let’s finish what they did in 1968,” someone yelled.
The protesters hung a sign dubbing the building, "Hind's Hall," referencing Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl found dead in Gaza days after being reported to be trapped under Israeli fire in the ongoing war in Gaza.
“This building is now being liberated,” a person was heard saying in the crowd early Tuesday morning via NBC News.
A Palestinian flag was seen hanging from a window of the building and trash cans were reportedly used to make a barrier. Columbia University, which set a 2:00 p.m. ET deadline for students to leave the pro-Palestinian encampment, said it would not divest from Israel, a demand made by the protesters on its and other college campuses in the U.S., and had already started issuing suspensions prior to the incident.
"We have begun suspending students," said Ben Chang, vice president for communications and a spokesperson for the university, three hours after the deadline had passed, though not specifying the exact total of suspensions issued.
At least 1,100 people, including several American citizens, were killed and thousands more were injured in the initial terror attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023. More than 30,000 people have died in retaliation attacks on Gaza as of Wednesday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said via the Associated Press.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, "we are in a war," in a video shared on social media after the attacks, which included land, air and sea as Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel's southern border and fired rockets from the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu ordered an "extensive reserve mobilization" in retaliation for the unprecedented attacks.