The Chicago police arrested at least 55 people, including three journalists, at a protest outside the city’s Israeli consulate on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday as they prepared for a fourth day of demonstrations surrounding the Democratic National Convention.

Police officials described the pro-Palestinian protest on Tuesday as violent and a threat to the city, and said officers tried to de-escalate the situation before making arrests. Several dozen demonstrators angry over the war in Gaza chanted, made speeches and scuffled with police officers in front of a downtown office tower that houses the consulate. The consulate was never breached.

“We were not the initiators of violence, but we responded to it,” said Larry Snelling, the Chicago police superintendent, who said two protesters were treated at a hospital and two police officers were injured. He added: “We will not allow people to come in this city, disrespect it and destroy it.”

A leader of a group that organized the protest, Behind Enemy Lines, criticized the law enforcement response and said demonstrators should have been allowed to march nearly two miles from the consulate to the arena hosting the convention. The scuffling began after demonstrators linked arms and pressed forward into a line of police officers. The police began arresting people and issued an order that people leave the area.

“The intention was to march to the D.N.C.,” Michael Boyte, a co-founder of the group, said late on Tuesday night. “Instead of our people being allowed to march to the convention,” he said, the city had sent in police officers.