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‘Somebody Is Radicalizing Our Students’: NYPD Finds Weapons, ‘Death to America’ Poster in Pro-Hamas Encampment
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Anti-Israel protesters who occupied an academic building at Columbia University had signs that read “death to America” and “death to Israel,” a New York City Police Department (NYPD) official said on Friday.
“Pencils, books, laptops — those are the tools of students and what you expect to find on a college campus,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry wrote on X/Twitter. “However, when the NYPD entered Hamilton Hall — which encampment protesters took over — to remove the occupiers, it found “gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on TERRORISM [sic].”
Additionally, the NYPD found a poster that read “death to America,” “death to Israel,” and “long live the intifada” — the last of which refers to a violent Palestinian uprising.
“Continue to peacefully and lawfully protest,” the deputy commissioner emphasized, “but know that if you engage in illegal conduct, the NYPD will hold you responsible and hold you accountable — someone has to.”
Pencils, books, laptops, those are the tools of students and what you expect to find on a college campus. But here’s what the NYPD found in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after we were able to arrest the protestors and agitators for commandeering and barricading themselves… pic.twitter.com/EKQV6nJySu
— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024
In a statement to reporters a day earlier, Daughtry drew attention to the broader trends driving the activity seen on college campuses across the country. “Somebody is radicalizing our students,” he said. “We will find out who that is.”
Meanwhile, Chief of Patrol John Chell said it was particularly notable to observe the “complete hatred for Israel that was being spewed and the hatred for the NYPD being spewed by the youth of this school.” He described it as “upsetting as a father and as New York City people.”
While speaking with reporters, NYPD officials said the materials were found during a raid at New York University and the New School, not Columbia. But Friday’s post said it was from Columbia.
“Somebody is radicalizing out students” Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz spoke after NYU and New School raid this morning, “we will find out who that is”. Chief of Patrol John Chell showed literature found inside the New School ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ after it was… pic.twitter.com/LObfkp5Vmd
— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) May 3, 2024
These revelations by the NYPD came amid a wave of anti-Israel protests on university campuses, many of which have featured students removing the American flag and replacing it with Palestinian flags. At The George Washington University, employees cut the rope to the flag pole in the middle of the night after demonstrators hoisted a huge Palestinian flag and defaced a statue of George Washington. On Friday, reportedly with the support of the school, a massive American flag was unfurled on a building right next to the encampment.
BREAKING: Large American flag has just been unfurled at George Washington University pic.twitter.com/GNW6PFe9et
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) May 3, 2024
For over two weeks, university students have been amassing in the hundreds at a growing number of schools, taking over sections of campuses by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.
After American flags were taken down on a campus in New York City and the NYPD put it back up, Mayor Eric Adams said, “It’s despicable that schools would allow another country’s flag to fly in our country.”
“Blame me for being proud to be an American,” he added. “We’re not surrendering our way of life to anyone.”
The post ‘Somebody Is Radicalizing Our Students’: NYPD Finds Weapons, ‘Death to America’ Poster in Pro-Hamas Encampment first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.