French cops drag pro-Palestinian protesters from their tents and dismantle their camp in operation lasting 'a few minutes' at Paris's Sorbonne University

Police moved in to clear dozens of protesters who had set up tents in a courtyard at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Monday to protest against the war in Gaza. 

Video captured the moment police dragged protestors away from a courtyard in the university, which was founded in 1257. 

French cops were seen dragging protestors out of tents, and were also seen cutting up the tents as a crowd behind them booed and jeered. 

The demonstration took place three days after protests at the capital's elite Sciences Po university and came in the wake of rallies in campuses across the United States against the conflict.

'We set up tents... like in several US universities,' Sorbonne student Louis Maziere said. 'We're doing all we can to raise awareness about what is happening in Palestine, about the ongoing genocide in Gaza.'

'Police then came running in, brought down tents, grabbed students by the collar and dragged them on the ground, that's not OK... We're quite shocked,' he said.

Fellow student Lou said: 'What we're pushing for is peace and they answer with force and violence.'

BFM TV showed footage of police dragging a couple of students out.

A police source confirmed they had intervened to clear out the Sorbonne's courtyard.

'This operation, which lasted only a few minutes, was carried out peacefully without incident,' the source said, declining to respond to questions on how the students had been removed.

The university, one of the world's oldest, closed its buildings for the day during the peaceful protests. Students chanted 'Free Palestine' and urged the institution to condemn Israel.

Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza and mounted an air and ground assault in which at least 34,488 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.

Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah have killed at least 22 people, including six women and five children, Palestinian health officials said. One of the children killed in the strikes overnight into Monday was just 5 days old.

Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war and has threatened to send in ground troops, saying Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the coastal enclave. 

Over a million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border. The United States and others have urged Israel not to invade, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel's actions came in response to an attack on southern Israel on October 7 by militants of the Palestinian group Hamas in which 253 people were taken hostage and about 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies.

Several French politicians, including Mathilde Panot who heads the hard-left LFI group of lawmakers in the National Assembly, have urged supporters on social media to join the Sorbonne protests.

Last week protests broke out at another elite university in the French capital region, the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, which counts Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal among its many famous alumni. 

Tensions had broken out on campus as pro-Palestinian students inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses in the United States sought to occupy an amphitheater.

On Friday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators faced each other in a tense standoff in the street outside the school. Riot police stepped in to separate the opposing groups.

The protest ended peacefully, when students agreed to evacuate the building late on Friday. The head of Sciences Po said an agreement with students had been reached.