PARIS (Dispatches) -- 
Students in Paris inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses in the United States blocked access to a campus building at a prestigious French university Friday, prompting administrators to move all classes online.
The pro-Palestinian protest at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, came two days after police broke up a separate demonstration at the university’s amphitheater outside one of its Paris campuses.
On Friday, scores of protesters occupied a central campus building and dozens of others blocked its entrance with trash cans, wooden platforms and a bicycle. 
Protesters gathered at the building’s windows chanted slogans and hung placards reading “We are all Palestinians,” in defiance of administrators who students say called the police on their peers two days earlier.
Several wore the black-and-white keffiyeh scarf that has become an emblem of solidarity with Gaza.
“When we see what is happening in the United States, and now in Australia, we’re really hoping it will catch on here in France, the academic world has a role to play,” said 22-year-old Hicham, a masters student in human rights and humanitarian studies at Sciences Po.
The students, he said, want Sciences Po to condemn Israel’s actions.
“We hope that will spread to all universities and beyond … we won’t give in until the genocide in Gaza ends,” said 20-year old Zoe, a masters student in public administration at Sciences Po. 
Police arrested over 100 protesters on U.S. campuses, and violently detained a professor who questioned their actions, throwing her on the ground and pushing her face into the concrete.
Global attention has turned to universities across the United States, where students have erected encampments to demand action to end Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
The growing protests have taken root on the campuses of some of the country’s top academic institutions, including Columbia and Harvard.
Over the past weeks, they have spurred heated debates around freedom of speech, Palestinian solidarity activism in the U.S., and the use of force to disperse student protesters, among other issues.
Encampments have popped up at universities and colleges across the U.S. this month, as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpassed the 34,300 mark, amid reports that mass graves were uncovered in the coastal enclave.
The students have issued a list of demands to their respective universities, including divesting from any companies that may be profiting from the Gaza war or providing the Israeli military with weapons and other support.
They have also urged an end to reprisals against students who have spoken out in support of Palestinians and for administrators to pledge not to send police or other law enforcement agencies onto the campuses to break up their protests.
Images of throngs of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers marching onto the Columbia University campus to disperse a Gaza protest encampment earlier this week galvanized students in other parts of the U.S. to set up their own protest sites, too.
Hundreds of students have been arrested across the country since the encampments began.
Like other protesters across the U.S., many American students have said they felt an impetus to act given the U.S. government’s long-standing support for the occupying regime of Israel.
The U.S. gives Israel $3.8 billion in military assistance annually, and President Joe Biden has continued to provide staunch support to the Zionist entity amid the Gaza war. On Wednesday, Biden signed into law a massive funding package that will provide an additional $17 billion to Israel.

Commenting on maritime operations by Yemeni naval forces, Houthi said Yemeni forces are looking to expand their operations in the Indian Ocean in such a way that it would catch Americans, Britons and Zionists by surprise.
“Over the 202 days of the Gaza war, we have targeted 102 ships. On average, we have targeted an Israeli-linked ship every two days,” he said.
U.S. and British militaries, he said, have failed to stop Yemeni missile and drone strikes despite strict monitoring and escort of ships.
Yemeni attacks, he added, have rendered the Israeli Port of Eilat on the Red Sea non-operational, and incurred substantial losses on the regime.
“Yemeni attacks have led to 40% decrease in Israeli imports, and reduced the Zionist regime’s exports by at least 22%. The maritime operations have also lowered the traffic of U.S. ships though the Red Sea by 80%.
“As long as the siege and aggression against Gaza continues, our operations in the Red Sea will continue. We won’t downgrade our naval operations, but rather intend to expand our operations in the Indian Ocean,” Houthi stated.