LOS ANGELES: College campuses across the United States braced for fresh protests by pro-Palestinian students Thursday, extending a week of increasingly confrontational standoffs with police, mass arrests and accusations of anti-Semitism.

The ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza has lit a match of shock and divisive outrage in American universities from New York to California.

More than 200 protesters were arrested Wednesday and early Thursday at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas where a fresh rally was scheduled for midday.

The spreading protests began at Columbia University in New York, where a midnight deadline set by college officials was fast approaching for students to remove an encampment that has become a symbolic epicentre of the movement after more than 100 demonstrators were arrested there last week.

Visiting the campus on Wednesday, top Republican leader House Speaker Mike Johnson condemned the nature of the protests and suggested it could be necessary to call out the National Guard.

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and are calling on universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

The protests pose a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance campus commitments to free expression amid complaints that the rallies have crossed a line into intimidation and fuelled a surge in anti-Semitism.