Protesters in the United States against the war in Gaza temporarily occupy the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics building

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The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Saturday that a group of demonstrators rejecting the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip temporarily seized a building on the University of Chicago campus.

According to the newspaper, the group of protesters demanding that the University of Chicago divest from companies that do business with Israel surrounded the Institute of Politics building at around five o'clock on Friday evening, while others made their way inside.

This sit-in comes at a time when other universities across the United States negotiated with students about their investments with companies that deal with Israel, and in some cases reached the point of calling the police to dismantle the protest camps.

The Chicago protest came after a Palestinian solidarity camp was removed on May 7 from the university by police force.

On Friday, university campus police used riot shields and entered the Policy Institute building and clashed with protesters, while some protesters climbed a second-floor window, according to the Sun-Times.

The university said that the protesters prevented entry, destroyed university property, ignored orders to clear the road, and those present left the building when the police entered.

University spokesman Gerald McSwiggan said in an official statement: “The University of Chicago is committed to protecting the rights of protesters to express a wide range of opinions, and at the same time, university police have made it clear that protests cannot endanger public safety, disrupt university operations or involve the destruction of property.” "

No injuries or arrests were reported.

Columbia University and the University of California at Los Angeles canceled their upcoming major graduation ceremonies after weeks of unrest on campus.

Meanwhile, off campus, nearly half of Americans support banning pro-Palestine protesters from campus entirely, according to another recent poll.

Student protests at American universities reached all parts of the United States and demanded the severing of financial relations between universities and Israel. The protest movement became the largest in decades, and spread to several countries in Europe, while more than 2,900 people were arrested at American universities during the past month.