HONG KONG — The Hong Kong government moved to clear pro-democracy protesters from a small area in front of an office building on Tuesday morning in the first move against the demonstrators in weeks. The authorities met no resistance, with student protesters saying they would not oppose the court order.

Dozens of bailiffs wearing black vests, backed by the police, supervised the removal of barricades in a small section of the main protest area around the Citic Tower after reading aloud a court injunction. They took hours to methodically clear metal barriers and the random items left from protesters who had been living there in tents for weeks, from books to undergarments.

The operation’s timing was no surprise; it was announced ahead of time. Demonstrators had largely vacated the area, and the police, unlike in past operations against the movement, did not wear riot gear.

“The majority of us don’t want to violate what they claim to be the law,” said one protester, Chris Wong, a student from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Yet even without court injunctions, he said, the time had come for the movement to consider its next phase.