Sciences Po Uni Closes Main Paris Site over Gaza Protest

In a message sent to staff on Thursday evening, its management said the buildings in central Paris "will remain closed tomorrow, Friday, May 3. We ask you to continue to work from home".

According to Agence France-Presse, a committee of pro-Palestinian students earlier Thursday announced a "peaceful sit-in" at Sciences Po and said six students were starting a hunger strike "in solidarity with Palestinian victims" in war-torn Gaza.

Echoing tense demonstrations rocking many top US universities, students at Sciences Po have staged a series of protests, with some furious over the Gaza war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

The Paris regional authority's right-wing head Valerie Pecresse temporarily suspended funding to Sciences Po earlier this week over the protests, condemning what she claimed "a minority of radicalised people calling for anti-Semitic hatred".

Israel waged a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas Resistance group carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

At least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.

A member of the student committee who identified himself only as Hicham said the hunger strikes would continue until the university's board voted on holding an investigation into its partnerships with Israeli universities.