Gaza solidarity encampments have spread to UK universities, echoing protests across US campuses this week.

Students at the University of Bristol, University of Leeds, and Newcastle University set up tents in demonstrations on Wednesday, 1 May.

Bristol students said they staged the action “in protest of the university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians,” while Apartheid Off Campus Newcastle said their demonstration was to “highlight the institution’s investment strategy and its complicity in the Israeli military’s war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”

It comes following violent clashes on the University of California campus between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators, hours after police stormed Columbia University and arrested dozens of students.

The Independent has contacted the UK universities for comment.