Administrators at the University of Bremen in northern Germany asked police to break up a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the school's campus on Wednesday after activists called for more demonstrators to join the action.
About 50 people gathered in the university's Glashalle building without prior permission, the police said. They had also not registered the protest, as required. A police spokeswoman said that efforts to clear the protesters began peacefully on Wednesday.
The university said the decision to clear the protesters was made for "security reasons" following calls on social media for more protesters to join the demonstration.
The University of Bremen also announced that administrators had sought talks with protest leaders in the morning. Further talks were also held to discuss the students' concerns and motivations.
Protesters had submitted demands in writing to the university management and remained in dialogue, according to the university.
Pro-Palestinian protests have broken out at universities around the world amid the ongoing Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. At a number of universities in the United States, police have used heavy force and arrested hundreds while breaking up campus protest camps.
There have also been pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other German universities.
On Tuesday, protesters occupied a lecture hall at Leipzig University in eastern Germany. Police removed protesters from the building and cleared the lecture hall by Tuesday evening.
A pro-Palestinian camp was also set up at the Free University of Berlin on Tuesday. It was cleared by police shortly afterwards.
German police have generally taken a hard line toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, citing concerns about the risk of anti-Semitic statements as well as past anti-Semitic incidents.
Critics, however, have accused German authorities of trampling on free speech and suppressing criticism of the Israeli government.
