Student protesters who occupied Oxford University’s Clarendon Building in a pro-Palestine demonstration have welcomed an official response from the university, but said it did not go far enough.

About 100 campaigners took over the Broad Street building last Thursday and demanded the university take action on the conflict between Israel and Gaza.

In a statement yesterday, Oxford University refused calls for it to condemn the attacks on Gaza, but said it would try to attract funding for Palestinian scholars, pass on the protesters’ views to Balliol College — the master of which had invited Israel president Shimon Peres to Oxford last year — and assess its investments in arms manufacturers.

It also said some staff had expressed a desire to go to Gaza and restore facilities at its university.

Student Amy Gilligan said: “Whereas we welcome the statement and view it as a positive step in upholding the university’s commitment to universal human rights, it is our view that the university should take a stronger stance condemning the horrendous attacks on Palestinian students and educational institutions.

“We moreover insist that the promised steps be pursued and applied in full.”

Student James Norrie added: “We insist on our demand that Balliol College immediately cancel the lectures Inaugurated by Shimon Peres. These tarnish the college’s reputation and render it complicit in the illegal actions of the apartheid Israeli state of which Peres is a leader and a symbol.”