US President Joe Biden attempted to score points with students on Sunday by telling graduates that he heard their voices of anti-war protest.

Mr Biden told students at the all-male Black Morehouse College, some of whom wore Palestinian scarves around their shoulders, that “I support peaceful non-violent protest.

“Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” he said.

He acknowledged a humanitarian crisis, adding: “There’s nothing easy about it. I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family.

“But most of all I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.”

Pro-Palestine protests have erupted on US campuses in recent weeks, spreading internationally.

Mr Biden had previously limited his public comments around the protests to upholding the right to peaceful demonstration.

Faculty members and others criticised his invitation to speak, with alumni circulating an online letter condemning university administrators.

The letter said that Mr Biden’s approach amounted to support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr, Morehouse’s most famous graduate.

At least seven graduates and one faculty member sat with their backs to his address.

Protesters gathered outside the ceremony, carrying signs reading: “Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire Now.”