Protests on the campus of the UW began on October 10, 2023, with a candlelight vigil held by Students Supporting Israel and attended by Jewish community leaders, mourning the deaths of Jews killed in the October 7 attack, including UW graduate Hayim Katsman, who was murdered in the Holit massacre.

[4][5] Two days later, Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return held a day of resistance and protest for Palestine, filling Red Square with protesters and counter-protesters.

[10] On May 7, Turning Point USA founder and right-wing activist Charlie Kirk visited campus.

[11] The protest disbanded on May 20 after university administration agreed to open a Center for Scholarship of Palestine, convene a military industrial and labor task force, and representation on a divestment committee.

[12] On October 7, 2024, a year after the start of the war, 130 people gathered at the Sylvan Grove Theater and Columns to honor the Palestinian lives lost in the war and also to mourn the death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a UW alumna who was shot and killed by Israeli Defense Forces while protesting in the West Bank.