British prosecutors on Monday released dramatic footage from inside an Elbit Systems facility that six pro-Palestinian activists broke into last year while armed with hammers and axes.
The video, recorded on a police body camera at the Bristol site, shows violent clashes between officers and the intruders, including one activist swinging a sledgehammer and striking an officer.
Pro-Palestinian activists filmed hitting UK officers with a hammer
(Video: Sky News)
The footage was presented during the trial of Charlotte Head, 29; Samuel Corner, 23; Leona Kamio, 30; Fatema Rajwani, 21; Zoe Rogers, 22; and Jordan Devlin, 31, all members of Palestine Action. The protest group was banned and designated a terror organization in the UK last June after a separate break-in at an RAF base in which a military aircraft was damaged.
Prosecutors said the Elbit raid on Aug. 6, 2024, was “carefully planned.” The activists, dressed in red overalls, arrived at the plant at daybreak in a commercial van and began smashing equipment and property inside the site.
'He swung the sledgehammer multiple times towards me'
Footage and testimony detailed the violent struggle that unfolded inside the factory. PC Aaron Buxton told jurors he was on the floor restraining one of the activists when another suspect approached wielding a sledgehammer.
“As he has reached us he has swung the sledgehammer multiple times towards me,” Buxton said. “I was scared. I believe it made contact with my right calf and my work radio. I had quite considerable pain down that area of my leg following it and also I had some bruising come up.”
Buxton said he then saw the attacker turn toward PS Kate Evans, who was kneeling while attempting to arrest another suspect, and strike her in the back.
'A massive shock… I thought my spine was shattered'
Giving evidence, Evans described an overwhelming blow that radiated through her entire body.
“I can remember looking up and PC Adams for some reason had a shocked face on him, and then I had a pain in my back,” she said. “It was just a massive shock vibrating through my whole back, a thud on my back through my whole body extended down to my legs.”
Evans told the court she froze at first, unable to comprehend what had happened. “I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I can remember looking round and seeing a male with a sledgehammer behind me.”
She said the pain was so severe she believed her “spine was shattered.” “I can remember putting my right foot down and pain shot up,” she added.
Evans later learned she had suffered a spinal fracture and was unable to work for three months. She said she needed help showering during her recovery and relied on painkillers to manage “intense pain.”
After additional officers arrived and the suspects were restrained, Evans checked on Corner when he complained that his handcuffs were too tight.
“We still have a duty of care to make sure no one is in pain,” she said. “They seemed perfectly fine to me.”
Evans said Corner then accused her and other officers of being “complicit in genocide” and said “something about murdering babies.”
“I said something like ‘you have just hit me with a sledgehammer,’ and he didn’t recognise that at all,” Evans told jurors. “He just started telling me I'm complicit in genocide again.”
The factory belongs to Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense manufacturer. The company said after the break-in that the site did not produce equipment for Israeli forces and supplies only the British military. The Bristol plant had been the target of repeated protests, and the company later announced it would close the site, saying the decision was based solely on business considerations.