"What is happening on college campuses in the United States is outrageous. Anti-Semitic mobs are taking over major universities," Netanyahu said in a videotaped message delivered in English.

For days, some of the most prestigious universities in the United States, such as Columbia in New York, Berkeley in California and Yale in Connecticut, have been the scene of protests and tent encampments calling, above all, for a change in Washington's policy towards Israel.

Netanyahu said the current demonstrations are reminiscent of "what happened on German campuses in the 1930s," when the number of Jewish students was restricted.

"We are seeing this exponential growth of anti-Semitism in the United States and in Western societies, while Israel is trying to defend itself against genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians," he said.

The Israeli leader also warned that anti-Semitic incidents often precede "larger conflicts, which engulf the entire world."

At least 34,200 people have died and more than 77,000 have been injured in the war that Israel launched in the Gaza Strip on October 7, in retaliation for the attack on the same day by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli territory, which killed 1,163 people, mostly civilians, and 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 have since died, according to the latest report by the Israeli authorities.

The conflict, which has been going on for more than six months, has also displaced nearly two million people, plunging the overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a "catastrophic hunger situation" that is claiming victims - "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN in food security studies worldwide.

Columbia University, the epicentre of the protests on university campuses, reached a last-minute agreement with activists on Tuesday night to reduce the scope of their protests.

The agreement, which averted a police dismantling at midnight, gave the campers 48 hours to limit their protests by meeting certain conditions: reducing the number of tents, expelling non-university activists, prohibiting "discriminatory language" and complying with police orders on security.

This measure protects the right to freedom of expression and, at the same time, responds to complaints about the lack of security represented by the presence and activity in dozens of tents in half of the main campus, or the allegedly anti-Semitic behaviour of some of the campers towards other students of the Jewish religion.

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