NEW YORK — NYPD brass Tuesday blamed faculty and “professional agitators” at New York University for heated standoffs with police, after university officials sent cops to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrest 120 protesters for trespassing, including students and staff.

The unrest at NYU over the war between Israel and Hamas was latest in a string of mass arrests at colleges in the tri-state area that started last week at Columbia University and spread to Yale University ih New Haven.

“The faculty were — from what I personally observed, and spoke to lieutenants and captains out there — the most aggressive towards the police,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said on Fox 5’s Good Morning America.

“They would not move, they would not let go.”

About 50 students protesting the war set up a tent demonstration early Monday morning on NYU’s Gould Plaza on W. Fourth St., outside the business school. An NYU spokesman said the school asked the NYPD to step in later in the day after the crowd became disorderly amid intimidating chants and anti-Semitic incidents.

As cops took down tents, some demonstrators were seen throwing objects at the officers. Police used pepper spray, as some protesters attempted to block buses taking away those arrested.

The NYU campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said in a statement Tuesday they were “met with violent arrests.” At least two reporters say they were pepper sprayed, including from the NYU student newspaper and local outlet HellGate, the student group and outlet reported.

Cops defended their response. As cops they moved in to clear the encampment, up to 15 faculty members tied their hands together to form a chain around the demonstrators, NYPD said Tuesday.

Daughtry said the faculty were “physical with our officers as well” and it took “quite some time” to remove faculty, before they could address the student protesters.

“I think parents have an expectation that when they send their kids to college the faculty and their professors will be teaching and not protesting,” said Tarik Sheppard, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. “It was shocking to see the faculty out there.”

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