French police detained 86 individuals following an operation to disband students staging a pro-Palestinian protest at Sorbonne University in Paris, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
According to the statement, those arrested during Tuesday night’s police operation are being held for various public order offences, including willful damage, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority, intrusion into an educational establishment, and organising a meeting aimed at disrupting order. Some individuals are also detained for participating in a group with intentions to prepare violence or damage to property.
They can be held initially for 24 hours, with the possibility of extension for another 24 hours.
The day prior to the police action, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal emphasised that there would never be a right to disrupt France’s universities with such protests.
Police intervened after approximately 100 students occupied a lecture theatre for two hours in solidarity with the people of Gaza, as noted by an AFP journalist on site.
The police operation at Sorbonne University on Tuesday night, as well as at another university on Paris’s Left Bank, Science Po University, followed similar interventions to end protests at the end of April.
Students at universities across several European countries have mirrored actions taken on US campuses, where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions due to Israel’s severe assault on Gaza. Police have also forcefully disbanded protests on campuses in the United States, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,170 individuals, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures. Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized on October 7—out of the 253 taken—are still being held in Gaza, including 34 individuals the military claims are deceased.
Israel’s offensive has resulted in the deaths of at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Palestine.
