Riot police were again drafted in to break up protests by pro-Palestine supporters in Utrecht and Amsterdam on Wednesday night. 

In Utrecht, some 40 people were picked up at the university location on the Drift and moved to a new location by bus, but were not arrested, police said early on Thursday morning. They had refused to comply with a university ultimatum to move which was given shortly after midnight.  

The university later issued a statement saying all its city centre locations would remain closed until Monday to “prevent further unrest and potentially unsafe situations” from arising.  

In Amsterdam, there were 32 arrests at university locations on the Binnengasthuisterrein and the Rokin in the city centre, but the situation was quiet by midnight, police said on social media.  

Earlier in the evening riot police had used diggers to break through the blockades which students had erected at the Binnengasthuisterrein after they refused to leave the premises, having been allowed to sleep there on Tuesday. 

Demonstrant vlucht na belagen van shovel op bijzondere manier voor politiehttps://t.co/ceWFEvjnjU pic.twitter.com/1A8cHlFf4d

— AT5 (@AT5) May 8, 2024

Some protesters set off fire extinguishers and directed them at the police, who drew their truncheons to keep them back. The demonstrators included people who were clearly not students but “were deliberately looking for confrontation”, the police said.

Some of the protestors then moved to the nearby Rokin where they again threw eggs and bricks at the police and, according to one police report, ammonia.

The protests led to public transport being disrupted for a time before riot police moved in to break up the crowd. A smaller group then moved to the Rembrandtplein to continue their protest, where the gathering was peaceful.

The protesters are calling on the universities to cut all ties with Israeli institutions.