PHILADELPHIA —Police began moving in early Friday morning to dismantle the 16-day old pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia police dressed in riot gear with zip ties and shields stood alongside Penn police as dozens of protesters chanted with their arms linked around the base of the university's iconic Benjamin Franklin statue. City police had arrested a few dozen protesters as of 6:40 a.m., said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

The move comes less than 24 hours after Gov. Josh Shapiro called on Penn to remove the encampment.

Penn did not immediately respond for comment.

"Over the last 24 hours ... the situation has gotten even more unstable and out of control," Shapiro said during an event in Westmoreland County on Thursday. "More rules have been violated, more laws have been broken. That is absolutely unacceptable."

Penn also received a petition last week with more than 3,000 signatures from faculty, students and others calling on the university to take the encampment down. Others have urged the university not to use force.

The protesters, who have remained peaceful, are part of a national movement on U.S. college campuses calling for universities to disclose their funding sources and divest their endowments from entities benefiting from the ongoing war in Gaza, where the death toll for Palestinians has surpassed 34,000 following the Hamas attack on Israel in October, which resulted in deaths and hostages being taken.

At Penn, protesters are also calling on the university to provide amnesty for pro-Palestinian students facing discipline over past protests. Penn has so far placed at least six students on leave and evicted one of them, an international student, from campus housing for participating in the encampment.

Members of Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine were outside the encampment area Friday morning as police told protesters to leave and began arresting people. "One word, abhorrent," said Dagmawi Woubshet, an associate professor of English, who is a member of the group. He said faculty members would be assisting students who have been arrested. "We can't get in," he said at 6:45 a.m. "All the entrances are blocked."

Amy Offner, an associate professor of history and president of the Penn chapter of American Association of University Professors, called the move to arrest members of the Penn community "cowardly and appalling," asserting that the faculty and students were engaged in nonviolent antiwar protest.

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