Student protests against the Israeli war on Gaza continue in the United States, despite the police arresting more than 600 students since the beginning of the sit-ins, while the movement extended to Canada, where a sit-in was held for the first time inside a Montreal university.

Students from Columbia University - from which the spark of protests began - in New York City continue their sit-in in support of the Palestinian people and demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Al Jazeera correspondent Bisan Abu Kwaik said that the protesters are demanding an economic and academic boycott of Israel.

In the American capital, the open student sit-in at George Washington University witnessed widespread participation, with 7 other universities joining in from Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.

Al Jazeera correspondent Fadi Mansour said that on the third day of the sit-in, Saturday, the participants reaffirmed their demands, most notably the withdrawal of investments from companies that support Israel and its academic boycott.

New arrests

On the other hand, police campaigns against the protesting students continued, with more than 600 students arrested since the start of the protests.

Riot police arrested about 100 demonstrators at Northeastern University in Boston while dispersing a student sit-in on campus.

The university confirmed that the police carried out these arrests, but said on the X platform that “the students who presented their university cards were released, while those who refused were arrested.”

The university claimed that the protests witnessed "violent anti-Semitic insults."

At Arizona State University, security forces arrested 69 people, under the pretext of “establishing an unlicensed camp,” according to the university administration.

The university administration added that those arrested would be prosecuted on charges of “trespassing on others’ property,” noting that most of them are not students or employees at the university, according to what it said.

Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania administration called on students protesting on campus to disperse the gathering due to what it described as blatant violations of university policies, citing “credible reports of harassing and intimidating behavior.”

But Arab students at the university expressed in a statement their disappointment over what they said were “blatant allegations” made by the university before a proper and fair investigation was conducted.

This movement in support of the Palestinian people and rejecting the Israeli war on Gaza began 10 days ago at Columbia University in New York, and extended to include dozens of universities and educational institutions from California to New England.

A sit-in at a Canadian university

The movement extended to neighboring Canada, where, on Saturday, a sit-in was held for the first time at McGill University in Montreal.

The organizers said that they entered into an open sit-in in order to stop the genocide in Gaza, and they also repeated the demands of their colleagues in the United States to withdraw investments linked to Israel and boycott Israeli academic institutions.

Likewise, students at British, French, and Australian universities continue to organize protests against the war on Gaza, like their American colleagues.