5 Palestine Action members appear in German court on charges of smashing Elbit site

Five people appeared in court in Stuttgart, Germany, on Monday, on charges of causing about 1 million euros’ ($1.17 million) worth of damage at the German site of an Israeli defense company, the court said.

News outlets including Stuttgarter Zeitung and broadcaster SWR said the vandalized office belonged to Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems, the latest office of the company to be attacked.

Prosecutors say the defendants, aged 25 to 40, trespassed and shouted pro-Palestinian statements as they smashed office equipment, measuring devices, and windows at the business in the southern city of Ulm, the court added.

According to the charges, the defendants acted as members of anti-Israel organization Palestine Action Germany, which later published videos claiming responsibility for the attack.

The defendants, who were not named, are Irish, British, Spanish, and German, prosecutors said.

Monday’s hearing took place in a high-security facility at the court, officials said. The Stuttgart court has previously said that more than a dozen hearings have been scheduled in the case through the end of July.

Elbit, which has an office in Ulm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The court did not identify Elbit as the target of the Ulm attack but said the company had been the target of attacks by Palestine Action groups in 2024. The defense did suggest the target was Elbit.

“We intend to use the proceedings to essentially turn the tables,” said Benjamin Düsberg, one of the lawyers for the defendants, according to the Guardian. “We want to show that it’s not our clients who should be on the hook, but rather the Elbit bosses, who continued delivering weapons even during the genocide.”

In Britain, Palestine Action members raided an Elbit UK factory in August 2024. One of them wielded a sledgehammer to strike a police officer and told a court last week that he considered the action “reasonable.”

He is one of six members of the anti-Israel group who are being retried after a jury acquitted them of aggravated burglary earlier this year but wasn’t able to reach verdicts on several key charges, including criminal damage and violent disorder.

The UK raid, which prosecutors said caused about 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) in damages, took place around 10 months into the Gaza war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

The initial verdict on the raid drew criticism from police, lawmakers, and Jewish communal groups. The retrial concerns the charges of criminal damage and violent disorder.

Britain proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025 after members infiltrated a Royal Air Force base and vandalized fighter jets. Hundreds of people have since been arrested in UK protests in support of the organization.

Attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets have spiked worldwide since the war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7 attack.