Arrests of demonstrators continue on US campuses

Police tore down a protest encampment at the University of Texas, arresting more than a dozen people, as unrest over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza simmered on US campuses.

Officers also detained several people at Fordham University in New York and cleared an encampment set up inside a school building, officials said, and law enforcement were on standby at Columbia University across town after mass arrests the previous evening.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology protesters dug in, blocking an avenue near the centre of the campus in Cambridge during the height of yesterday afternoon's rush hour commute.

Dozens of police cars patrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles in response to violent clashes overnight when counter-protesters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian students.

 The University of Texas Dallas saw police remove an encampment and arrest at least 17 people for "criminal trespass," the school said.

Demonstrators have gathered in at least 30 US universities since last month, often erecting tent encampments to protest the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.