Los Angeles, California - More than 100 people were arrested Wednesday at two universities in California and Texas, officials said, as students increasingly rise up in solidarity with Palestinians under siege.

Demonstrations flared at the University of Southern California's (USC) Los Angeles campus, where 93 people were arrested for trespassing, and at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, where 34 were arrested, according to authorities.

The tense standoffs were among the latest on-campus confrontations between law enforcement, including police in riot gear, and students outraged at the mounting death toll in Israel's Gaza assault.

USC said on social media site X at around midnight that the protest had ended and the campus would remain "closed until further notice."

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"Students, faculty, staff, and people with business on campus may enter with proper identification," the university said.

Los Angeles police officers went to the campus on Wednesday afternoon and "assisted the university in effecting trespass arrests" when protesters refused to leave, Captain Kelly Muniz told reporters.

The LAPD said there were no reports of injuries and patrols would remain in the area on Thursday.

Videos of law enforcement officers – some on horseback – violently arresting peaceful students at UT Austin have stoked outrage online.

Pro-Palestinian protests are spreading following intense crackdown attempts at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell a solidarity encampment following allegations of antisemitism.

Demonstrators, including a number of Jewish students, have disavowed instances of antisemitism and criticized officials equating it with opposition to Israel.

As students and other demonstrators have camped out on school quads, occupied university buildings, and disrupted campus activities, universities this week have affirmed their rights to free speech and peaceful protest – even as violent incidents of repression continue.

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On Sunday, President Joe Biden denounced "blatant anti-Semitism" that has "no place on college campuses."

But the White House has also said that the president supports freedom of expression at academic institutions.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at Columbia on Wednesday that the demonstrations "place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States," adding that the National Guard could be brought in if the protests were not contained soon.

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