Police have tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted at Harvard and other colleges in a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.

At the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of police clashed with protesters, pushing them off the campus lawn and at one point sending some tumbling into the street.

And at the University of Southern California, police got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents, removing several before falling back.

Other demonstrations took place at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and California State Polytechnic in Humboldt.

Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables.

That did not stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents on Wednesday following a rally against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its months-long conflict.

Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.

Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into anti-Semitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.

Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day.

The situation there remained tense, with campus officials saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.

On a visit to campus, US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to resign “if she cannot bring order to this chaos”.

Johnson’s visit, which he said was meant to support Jewish students intimidated by some anti-Israeli demonstrators, took place shortly after the university extended a deadline from Wednesday to Friday to reach an agreement to remove an encampment that has come to symbolise the campus protest movement.

Police first tried to clear the encampment last week, when they arrested more than 100 protesters.

The move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar encampments and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.

About 60 tents remained on Wednesday at the Columbia encampment, which appeared calm.

Security remained tight around campus, with identification required and police setting up metal barricades.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on US college campuses in a video statement, saying the response of several university presidents had been “shameful” and calling on state, local and federal officials to intervene.