Joana Fraga explained to Lusa that the police arrived at the building at 10:00pm this Thursday and said that "on instructions from the management [of the Faculty] they had orders to order" the participants in the occupation, which is taking place in the faculty's atrium and is demanding "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and the end to fossil fuels by 2030", to leave.

"At this moment, there are about eight students inside resisting. Outside, we have a protest in support with all the other students who were also in the camp and others who have come to show their support, either independently or in groups", explained this spokesperson for the occupation.

Another source from this student movement, who did not wish to be identified, explained in detail to Lusa that the PSP appeared at the faculty with between 20 and 25 officers and that there were about 50 people at the door of the building in solidarity with the students who are still inside the faculty.

Joana Fraga also stressed that, on Tuesday, when this occupation began, a meeting was held with the management and "there was a commitment not to evict and give an order to disperse as long as normal teaching activities were maintained and this occupation did not disrupt normal teaching activities".

The spokesperson for the activists assured that up until Thursday "all classes have taken place normally".

"There was, in a certain way, a breach of this word that we are still trying to understand, we are still trying to talk and make contact with the management to understand what happened", she added.

The Lusa agency contacted the Metropolitan Command of the PSP in Lisbon (Comtelis), who confirmed the presence of a police force at the site, without giving details about the reason or the result of this presence.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the occupation had said that the protest was continuing with almost double the number of tents (15) compared to the previous day.

Portuguese university and secondary school student movements, including the Student Climate Strike and Students for Justice in Palestine, called for the occupation, joining a student protest that began on American campuses and has already spread to universities in several European cities, Canada, Mexico and even Australia, demanding the end of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, the management of the Institute of Education and the Faculty of Psychology, which operate in the same building, said that academic activities had taken place normally, despite the student protest.

The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil on 7 October 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and two hundred hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.

Since then, Israel has launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has caused almost 35,000 deaths, according to Hamas, which has governed the small Palestinian enclave since 2007.

Read Also: Student protest in Lisbon continues with double the number of tents (Portuguese version)