Editor's Note: This article was updated early Saturday morning to note that the protesters were ordered to disband on Friday night.

Students at the University of Pennsylvania erected tents on their campus in support of Palestine, marking the second day of their protest and the latest to emerge at a prominent American university, as seen in videos and photos captured exclusively by The Sentinel.

On a sunny and cool Friday afternoon at the Ivy League school in Philadelphia, where students are in their last days of classes ahead of final exams, several dozen students gathered inside of the encampment on College Green in protest of what they see as an unjust war waged in Gaza by Israel. The protesters surrounded the encampment with various banners and signs featuring slogans such as “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” and “ceasefire now.”

As The Sentinel captured footage inside the encampment, student organizers requested for the protesters not to be recorded, expressing worry that their identities would be revealed. Students largely read books or conversed with one another as they enjoyed Dunkin and other free snacks.

The organizers offered to refer The Sentinel to a press liaison, but they later said the liaisons were “at capacity.” The organizers themselves declined to participate in an interview, as did most of the nearby students observing the encampment approached by The Sentinel.

Police had requested that all signs be removed from the iconic statue of Benjamin Franklin, the founder of the University of Pennsylvania, yet the protesters dressed the monument in a keffiyeh scarf and a Palestinian flag, as well as draped banners on the pedestal. Police ordered protesters to remove the items once an individual spray-painted “zios get fuckt” on the monument, after which an employee power-washed the statue and officers erected a barricade.

The officers monitoring the protest declined to comment when approached by The Sentinel. No arrests have been made at the protest as of this publication, but the vandalism and reported harassment of students prompted University of Pennsylvania Interim President Larry Jameson to order the disbandment of the encampment on Friday night and vow discipline for those who continue demonstrating. The encampment was still intact as of early Saturday morning.

An organizer led students in chants of “shame” and “stop censoring speech” as she called on the University of Pennsylvania to divest of financial assets linked to Israel. Another woman who identified herself as a philosophy professor read an essay to the assembled students.

The second day of the University of Pennsylvania encampment comes after students were arrested at Columbia University and other schools over the past week as a result of tensions at similar demonstrations. Faculty and students at elite universities have been divided over the war between Israel and Hamas, drawing the attention of Congress and producing threats to withhold federal funds from the schools over concerns about campus antisemitism.

One student told The Sentinel that he stopped by the encampment for a short while after hearing about the protest. He said the demonstrations have not been overly disruptive but noted that he could understand why some students may be offended at the “from the river to the sea” slogan, since the phrase “can be interpreted” to have “racist connotation.”

The student did see “people conversing about the conflict,” noting how fruitful dialogue produced by the protest would be “a positive,” yet added that he is not sure the encampment is “the best way to promote dialogue and education between people of differing perspectives.”