HARTFORD, Conn. — About 45 protesters at Yale University were arrested and charged with trespassing Monday morning during a protest seeking the university to divest from weapons manufacturers that supply Israel with arms, police said.

New Haven police officers assisted the Yale Police Department in the area of the Beinecke Plaza, where protesters were given commands to leave the property or be arrested, police said.

The protesters refused to leave and were charged by Yale officers with first-degree trespassing, police said.

“They were transported to a Yale Police facility where they were processed and released,” police said. “At approximately 8 (a.m.), a group of about 200 protesters returned to block the intersection of Grove Street and College Street. The protest is currently ongoing. The New Haven Police Department has no current plans to make any arrests of nonviolent protesters.”

Noor Kareem, a sophomore from Michigan who was one of those arrested, said, “It was very brutal. We were all crying. I was asleep and we were woken up by shouts that police are here. It was very cold. I went out with my blanket. … We were all sitting there singing and crying together.”

Kareem said she was sharing a tent with friends who were not among those designated to be arrested but they were arrested as well. The arrests began at 6:30 a.m.

“It seemed like the cops had a time which they were supposed to arrest people, because they were looking at their watches, and then all of a sudden they just grabbed someone who wasn’t linked with us because we were all holding arms,” Kareem said. “One person was just walking by and they grabbed her and then she was the first to get arrested, and then they started going into the circle and grabbing people one by one.”

At College and Grove, outside Woolsey Hall, students chanted slogans such as “Hey hey, ho ho, there’s blood on your portfolio.”

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said New Haven police assisted Yale police in the arrests in “a supportive role.”

“New Haven has a long history supporting people’s rights to express their views and struggle through very challenging issues,” he said. “What’s important is that people are safe. And ultimately, protesters blocking two busy city streets cannot happen indefinitely. So we’ve been asking the protesters to move off the street onto the sidewalk and they’ve been unwilling to do so.”

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