LOS ANGELES — Five days before pro-Israeli counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA, the university police department asked other campuses for additional police, according to the head of the UC police officers union.

But the requests — which would have provided UCLA with more police officers as they dealt with the camp and a dueling area erected by pro-Israeli activists — were both quickly canceled, according to internal communications reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

UCLA officials did not respond to a request for comment about the cancellation.

The requests for additional police resources add to the questions about why UCLA was so underprepared when dozens of people swarmed the camp Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, attacking protesters who were occupying the space on the campus.

Law enforcement sources said there were only a handful of UCLA officers on duty at the time, and they were quickly overwhelmed. It would take hours for officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and other agencies to arrive and stop the violence.

UCLA's handling of the upheaval is now the subject of an external review by the University of California and has been roundly criticized.

Wade Stern, an officer at UC Riverside and the president of the Federated University Police Officers' Assn., told The Times that the mutual aid call would have allowed for members of UCPD's Systemwide Response Team — a group of about 80 officers across the portfolio of schools known as the SRT — to deploy to UCLA. The request would have placed the extra officers on campus from Sunday to Tuesday, Stern said.

"We've all been trying to get up there and go help," he said.

The two requests for mutual aid were made Thursday and Friday, but both were canceled within a few hours, according to documents reviewed by The Times. UCLA requested and received aid on Sunday to deal with counterprotesters at the camp.

The request for mutual aid was not sent out again, despite the fact that SRT members were standing by, ready to head to UCLA, Stern said.

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