Student protests hit US colleges as Israel-Palestine war rages on

Two groups of hundreds of students at the Columbia University have tensely faced each other in duelling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while university officials blocked public access to the New York City campus as a safety measure.

Supporters of Palestinians held signs on Thursday in a grassy area near a library that read "Free Palestine" and "To Exist is to Resist."

About 30 metres away, students backing Israel held up anti-Palestine posters.

After the Palestinian resistance group Hamas' weekend assault on Israel over what it says was a response to illegal settler violence and storming of Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Israel has bombarded besieged Gaza and plans a ground invasion.

The Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300, according to public broadcaster Kan.

Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians had been killed, 500 of them children.

Amid the growing conflict, tensions between students on opposite sides of the issue have boiled over in some US college campuses.

There have been reports of harassment and assaults of both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students, deepening grief and putting students of all political stripes on high alert.

In a sign of the tensions, some counter-protesters at Columbia shouted angrily at the pro-Palestinian group.

Several masked speakers at the pro-Palestine rally declined to reveal their full names, with one saying they did not feel safe enough on campus to disclose their identity.

Many faulted the university for not expressing more support for Palestinian students and the people of blockaded Gaza.

The campus climate may only become more tense in the coming days. Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas and Hamas has pledged to fight on.

Meanwhile, college administrators are grappling with how to keep campuses secure and denounce the violence in the Middle East without wading too deeply into a supercharged political and historical dispute that affects students personally.

Intimidation of pro-Palestinian students

A controversy at Harvard University on Monday was one of the first to make headlines.

An alumni lambasted a joint student group statement calling Israel "entirely responsible" for the war.

The university president later clarified that the groups did not represent the school's position.

On Tuesday, the names and personal information of students allegedly involved were posted online and on Wednesday, a billboard truck displaying that information was driven around campus, the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported.

Some critics of the pro-Palestinian letter responded by denouncing the intimidation of students, the newspaper said.

Tensions sparked anew at campuses on Thursday as the national group Students for Justice in Palestine [SJP] declared a "day of resistance," with demonstrations by its 200 chapters at colleges across North America.

The national group, which advocates for an independent Palestine and says on its website that it promotes "an agenda grounded in freedom, solidarity, equality, safety and historical justice," called the October 7 strike "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance."

The University of Arizona, Tucson chapter of SJP cancelled a protest on Thursday, citing safety concerns after the school's president called the gathering "antithetical to our university's values."

Dozens of students from the University of California Los Angeles chapter of SJP held a march for Palestine on Thursday, despite the group's report that its student members had been harassed and assaulted over the last several days, including while counter-protesting a pro-Israel rally.

At Georgetown University in Washington, DC, the SJP chapter chose to host a vigil on Thursday night but declined to allow media access "due to increased harassment and threats of violence against Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and anti-Zionist students across the country."