AUSTIN, Texas — Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the center of the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday for an all-day demonstration that prompted a heavy police response, including arrests.

The class walkout was the latest in a movement among students at primarily Ivy League universities in which portions of campus are taken over with chants and protests in support of the Palestinians as Israel wages a casualty-heavy campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Unlike the hesitation shown by university officials in the conflict at Columbia in New York, hundreds of state and local police rushed to the scene at UT on Wednesday in a show of force by the state.

By late afternoon, the Washington Examiner had observed more than a dozen people arrested as police attempted to push protesters off certain parts of the campus property, including a local Fox News cameraman. Campus police did not respond to requests for arrest details.

The protest began shortly after noon as organizers gathered near the Gregory Gym and then moved toward the South Mall lawn near the UT Tower.

Earlier in the day, UT officials sent out a letter stating that the school would not allow disruptions to campus “like we have seen at other campuses.”

“This is an important time in our semester with students finishing classes and studying for finals, and we will act first and foremost to allow those critical functions to proceed without interruption,” a UT Austin spokesperson said in a statement.

State troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Austin Police Department officers, and UT Austin campus police were all on site as the demonstrators shifted a few blocks and moved from the gym to the lawn by mid-afternoon.

Police lined the perimeter of the lawn as protesters, arm in arm, chanted for several hours, with officers making arrests every few minutes, though authorities on the scene would not comment about the reason for arrest.

Chants included “Off our campus,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Israel, Israel, what do you say? How many Gazans did you kill today?”

Police ordered the crowd to begin moving away from the area around 5:30 p.m. local time, using batons as a divider between the officers and protesters as they walked the group west toward Guadalupe Street and away from campus buildings.

By 6:30 p.m., the group had been pushed two blocks and began to disperse.

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Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), whose governor’s mansion is a little more than a mile from campus, stated that protesters should face expulsion for participating in “hate-filled, antisemitic” activities.

“Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail,” Abbott said in a post to X Wednesday afternoon. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”