Elbit factory targeted in Palestine Action raid was set to deliver 'immediate shipment of drones' to Israel, court hears

An Israeli-owned arms factory targeted by a group of Palestine Action activists was scheduled to deliver a shipment of drones to Israel around the time of the raid in 2024, a court in London heard on Friday. Five defendants - Qesser Zuhrah, 21, Zahra Farooque, 26, Kamran Ahmed, 29, Heba Muraisi, 31, and Liam Mullany, 34 - are facing charges of criminal damage and violent disorder at Woolwich Crown Court in connection with the break-in at an Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on 6 August 2024. Giving evidence this week, Zuhrah, who said she helped coordinate the action, told jurors that she had first heard of the Filton site when others in the group raised concerns "about an immediate shipment of weapons" set to leave the factory and that, as a result, the action had been "speedtracked". Zuhrah - who was a 19-year-old student at the time of the raid - told the court she believed that Elbit Systems supplied “85 percent of Israel’s land-based weaponry and supplied the drones found at its factories”. “It’s not just a wild guess that [the drones] were going to be used in Gaza. I believe Elbit Systems says they battle-test on Palestinians.” New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Prosecutors allege that the defendants, whom they refer to as the “black team”, wore black jumpsuits and aimed to “overwhelm” security to allow a second group of activists, named the “red team”, to break into the factory in a prison van, ram the shutters and smash weapons and other equipment. They say that the defendants achieved this by “threatening, intimidating and, if necessary, assaulting the guards, by throwing fireworks at them and brandishing weapons such as whips and hammers and large kebab skewers”. All five defendants deny the charges. Zuhrah said that she understood the role of the black team “was simply to help the red team to get in by creating a distraction, a thick smoke screen so we couldn’t be seen, noise from fireworks to cover the noise of the van as it smashed into the factory and leave as soon as we can”. 'A very frightening time': US terror tag endangers UK Palestine Action activists, critics say Read More » Zuhrah told the court she was asked to purchase some of the tools used in the action, including fireworks and flares, which she said were intended to create the smoke screen to cover the entry of the van into the factory. She said this included a number of “contingency tools”, including axes, crowbars and hammers, which would be used to cut through the plant’s shutters in the event that the van did not succeed in crashing through them. The court heard that in one message prior to the action, Zuhrah had referred to the equipment as “weapons”. She told jurors that she had used the term interchangeably with “equipment” and “tools” and that it had “nothing to do with any insidious intention, the language seeps in when all you’re talking about is weapons factories, weapons factories, weapons factories”. “They were weapons insofar as it’s what we use to destroy actual weapons inside the factory,” she said. The court heard that the black team also carried kebab skewers, which Zuhrah said were intended to puncture the prison van’s tyres in the event it did not crash through the shutters, in order to leave it blocking the loading bay. “If that’s parked outside the factory, there's no weapons going anywhere for a good amount of time,” Zuhrah said. 'Everything was moving very fast' When she was asked by her lawyer, Garry Green KC, if the plan for the raid involved violence or the threat of violence to security or anyone else, she answered: “Absolutely not.” She said that during previous actions, “we usually just run away, and make lots of turns so we lose security”, and that there is “no intention to stick around and provoke or initiate anything”. “It's a bit naive,” she added. “It's Elbit security, and they’re ex-military, so they’re very smart.” Jurors heard that once the van had breached the perimeter fence encircling the Elbit site, the black team got out and followed on foot. The vehicle carrying the red team members, meanwhile, approached the shuttered loading bay leading into the plant. 'This was not part of the plan, we were meant to leave. I had exams I had to get home and do' - Qesser Zuhrah, defendant Then, a member of the black team took an angle grinder to the shutters, with the intention of weakening them so the van could ram through. While that was happening, Zuhrah said the remaining black team members “started lighting fireworks and flares”, in order to “create smoke really quickly to cover the van and cover us”. Zuhrah said she lit flares and threw them into “a big empty space in front of us”, adding that at that point, she had not seen any security staff. Once the van had crashed through the shutters, Zuhrah said the black team began making their way towards the perimeter fence to leave the site, but they then realised that one of their number was missing. “Someone shouted ‘he’s on the floor!’” Zuhrah recalled, saying she peered through the smoke to see “two legs disappearing behind the factory...as if it was a lifeless body being dragged. It was very distressing”. She said she ran towards where she saw one of the black team members being dragged “by his throat backwards” by two security guards. The court heard that Zuhrah then lit and fired a firework. "I thought if I light the firework...maybe people will break up and everything will stop," she said. "That's the only thing I had. I didn't know what to do." When asked if she fired it at the security guards, she responded “not at all, I could burn someone and that was not the intention”, saying she let it off into the space in front of her rather than directly at them. UK MP John McDonnell raises 'alarm' about arrest of journalists at Palestine Action protest Read More » “Everything was moving very fast, I didn’t know who was where and what was where. But they weren’t in front of me at any point. I didn’t get that close,” Zuhrah said. She recalled that at one point, one of the security guards got hold of an axe and a whip and was “swinging it around” and shouting. “I was scared he was going to use it against us,” she said. "This was not part of the plan, we were meant to leave. I had exams I had to get home and do," she said. Jurors heard that Zuhra, and the other black team members, ran back towards the perimeter fence pursued by one of the security guards. While others scrambled over the fencing, Zuhrah was not able to. Instead, she climbed up a “pole” instead to try to get to the other side. She recalled that, as she did, the security guard “whipped” her. "If he’d ever intended to use reasonable force against anyone, that was his chance, but instead he just wanted to whip," she said. In cross-examination, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC questioned Zuhrah’s awareness of the possibility of a confrontation with security guards on site. Heer asked what Zuhrah meant by another message she had sent to an activist who was interested in participating in the action in the weeks prior, which said that “some of the security we encounter are ex-military so it’s literally fight or flight”. Zuhrah responded that she was checking “he’s not someone who will submit to a fight or flight response”, and ensuring that “he’s calm and level headed”. Heer read a message to another activist who was not happy for his younger brother to take part, asking Zuhrah: “Was that because he was uncomfortable with violence?” Zuhrah responded that “that was not being discussed” and that she was referring to “the risk of arrest”. The trial continues