WASHINGTON

Republican Senators sent a letter Tuesday to Biden administration officials to "restore order" as pro-Palestinian campus protests escalated across the US.

Sen. Tom Cotton led 26 of his Senate Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona "urging them to restore order to campuses that have been effectively shut down by anti-Semitic mobs that are targeting Jewish students."

The letter came as protests over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza have taken hold at a handful of US universities including Columbia University, New York University and Yale as officials scramble to defuse demonstrations.

"You need to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses. President (Joe) Biden issued a statement on Sunday purporting to condemn the outbreak of anti-Semitism.

"If that statement was serious, it must be accompanied by immediate action from your departments," they wrote in the letter.

The senators asked Garland and Cardona to provide an update on efforts to protect Jewish students by Wednesday.

More than 130 people were arrested at New York University in Manhattan overnight during pro-Palestinian protests.

The crackdown at NYU came hours after police arrested 45 people at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and after New York’s Columbia University announced that it was switching to online classes due to pro-Palestinian protests.

Over 100 students, including the daughter of US Representative Ilhan Omar, were arrested at Columbia on Thursday as they were staging a sit-in after Columbia President Minouche Shafik called on the New York Police Department (NYPD) to clear the demonstration.

All 10 New York Republicans in the US House of Representatives urged Shafik to step down Monday. The conservative lawmakers said in a letter to Shafik that "anarchy has engulfed" the school's Manhattan campus and accused her of failing to provide students with "a safe learning environment."

Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip has displaced more than 75% of the coastal enclave's estimated 2.3 million residents and resulted in over 34,000 deaths, according to Gaza health officials. Israel has also targeted Gaza's places of higher education, with all of its 12 major universities being destroyed.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, has separately reported mass destruction at the sprawling network of schools it operates in the coastal enclave.

Demonstrators are demanding that universities divest from Israel-linked firms and condemn Israel's assault on Gaza. Counter-protesters in support of Israel have said the protests veer into antisemitism and make Jewish students feel unsafe.