US police arrest pro-Palestine protesters for 'occupying' Minnesota University building

US police have arrested pro-Palestine protesters after they briefly occupied a building at the University of Minnesota and renamed it to “Halimy Hall” in remembrance of a young Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip.

University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) and Hennepin County officers stormed Morrill Hall on the East Bank on Monday afternoon and arrested at least 13 students who had briefly occupied the building in protest to Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

The protesting students renamed the building after the 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok creator Medo Halimy, who succumbed to his injuries following an Israeli airstrike targeting his tent in the southern Gaza town of Al-Mawasi in August.

Halimy, who gained popularity on social media platforms Instagram and TikTok by creating videos that chronicled his personal struggles and stories of his friends and neighbors amid the genocidal war on Gaza, suffered severe injuries in the attack and slipped into a coma before passing away.

Before police stormed the “Halimy Hall”, protesters had barricaded the building with metal tables, chairs, bike racks and wooden pallets and locked the doors with bike locks after marching from a rally outside Coffman Union. 

Morrill Hall contains the office of University President Rebecca Cunningham and other administrative departments.

Meanwhile, a group of protesters also gathered outside the building's west entrance near Northrop Mall.

Humans of Gaza: 19-year-old TikToker who documented life amid war silenced forever

Mohammad Halimy, a young Palestinian TikToker with a massive following, succumbed to his wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his tent in Gaza.

Protests erupted once again amid widespread outrage over US backing of Israel's massacre in Gaza and Lebanon. In Gaza, more than 42,700 people have been killed while over 2,400 lives have been lost in Lebanon since October 7, 2023.

Since October, the US has provided Israel with $17.9bn in military aid alone, according to a report published by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

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