Cambridge, Massachusetts - Police on Friday carried out pre-dawn swoops on students protesting Israel's war on Gaza, in the latest unrest on campuses across the country.

At least ten people were arrested at MIT, according to university president Sally Kornbluth, who said she had "no choice" but to dismantle the "high-risk flashpoint."

At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, officers in tactical gear forcibly removed several dozen students who had linked arms around a statue of Benjamin Franklin, NBC reported.

Students did not resist arrest at either university.

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Kornbluth offered a timeline of the weeks of protest and negotiations on the MIT campus, culminating in warnings to the students and finally her decision to ask police to clear the encampment, which she described as a "last resort."

The encampment had pitted two sides at the university against one another, she wrote.

For the demonstrators, it "symbolized a moral commitment that trumped all other considerations, because of the immense suffering in Gaza."

"You cannot suspend the movement. We will be back," they wrote on Instagram.

Police have arrested more than 2,000 people nationwide in the weeks of US campus unrest.

Students have been demonstrating against Israel's war on Palestinians, and demanding their schools divest financially from US weapons manufacturers and Israeli entities complicit in what international human rights organizations have described as a system of apartheid.

Campus authorities have responded by cracking down on protesters, dishing out suspensions and calling in armed police to dismantle encampments on the pretense of protecting Jewish student life on campus – even as many of those participating in the movement are themselves Jewish.

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Meanwhile, they have been slow to respond to violent counter-protests, such as the one that led to shocking attacks on the UCLA Gaza solidarity encampment last week. Over 800 faculty members and staff on Thursday signed a letter demanding the resignation of UCLA chancellor Gene Block, who facilitated a brutal LAPD raid on students the day after they were assaulted by a pro-Israeli mob.

In some cases, schools have struck deals with the students, who then promptly disbanded their encampments voluntarily.

A recent study shows that the vast majority of campus protests in solidarity with Palestinians have been peaceful.