PHOTOS: See the GW University pro-Palestinian protest evolve

As final exams neared and the war in Gaza raged on, the protests on the D.C. campus lasted for two weeks. Universities nationwide are contending with encampments of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Student demonstrators were demanding that the university divest from Israel. They were also asking the school to remove a suspension against a pro-Palestinian student group.

The protest, and resulting encampment, began at 5 a.m. on April 25. Activists first pitched about 50 tents before dawn in University Yard, only three blocks away from the White House.

The Associated Press reported the number of demonstrators grew significantly throughout the morning, with some waving Palestinian flags, beating drums and chanting slogans.

Later, a group of Georgetown University students and professors staged their own walkout and marched to the George Washington campus to join in with the protesters there.

Students from other local colleges, including American University, George Mason and the University of Maryland took part in the rallies on GW’s campus.

The police department was monitoring the demonstrations on campus and on H Street, and first called the protests “very peaceful.”

See photos of how the protests evolved from the beginning to when the encampment was cleared.