The New York Police Department (NYPD) charged a female student with one count of assault after she allegedly hit an Israeli student with a stick on Columbia’s campus on Wednesday, according to the Columbia Spectator. 

The suspect allegedly approached students who were hanging posters of Israelis that Hamas terrorists had taken as hostages and asked to join them earlier in the day, telling the students she was Jewish, according to the Spectator. She was later allegedly spotted ripping the posters down and hit the victim, referred to as I.A. by the Spectator, with a stick and yelled obscenities when confronted. (RELATED: More Than 150 Harvard Faculty Sign Letter Criticizing Student Groups’ Pro-Palestine Statement, School’s Response)

“This is because me being an Israeli these days. Not me because being myself,” I.A. told the Spectator. “It is because me being an Israeli who is under a certain kind of threat.”

I.A. said that he won’t return to campus over the next few days and that he informed other Jewish and Israeli students that they should be careful visiting campus because of pro-Palestine protests scheduled for Thursday, according to the Spectator.

“We were all kind of shocked that this stuff can happen on our own campus, which should be a safe haven,” I.A. told the Spectator. “We don’t know how to handle the situation, let alone that our families and friends are going through the worst nightmare, and we are mentally in the same ship with them. And, now, we have to handle the situation that campus is not a safe place for us anymore.”

“Given the situation unfolding in Israel, we have surged resources to sensitive locations out of an abundance of caution and to ensure that all New Yorkers stay safe,” a spokesperson for the NYPD Deputy Commissioner Public Information office, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Students for Justice in Palestine announced a “Day of Resistance” will be held Thursday to celebrate the impending “liberation” of  Palestinians. More than 1,200 Israelis died and thousands more were wounded as of Thursday afternoon after Hamas terrorists launched attacks on Saturday, according to CBS News.

Columbia University is open to “ID holders only today to help maintain safety and a sense of community through planned demonstration activities,” the media director for Columbia told the DCNF.

Multiple student groups at elite colleges and universities have put out pro-Palestine statements following the terrorist attacks, including Harvard University, Yale University and George Washington University.

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