UK anti-Israel activist says raid on Elbit factory was about destroying weapons

Activists from now-proscribed Palestine Action group, charged with aggravated burglary, deny charges and say they oppose violence; one allegedly broke cop’s spine with sledgehammer

LONDON — A British activist on trial over a raid targeting Israeli defense firm Elbit said on Thursday she and her co-defendants had wanted to “cause as much property damage as we could,” but said she was opposed to violence.

Charlotte Head, 29, and five others are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court over what prosecutors have described as a meticulously planned assault by Palestine Action on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August 2024.

All six are charged with aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage, with one of Head’s co-defendants also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer.

They all deny the charges. Head told jurors she and her co-defendants had decided to take action because “all else had failed.”

Head admitted she drove a repurposed former prison van carrying fellow activists through fences outside the factory and then into a loading bay in the early hours of August 6, 2024.

She said the plan was to “go in and destroy as many weapons as we could find.”

Protesters take part in a demonstration in support of “Defend Our Juries” and their campaign against the ban on Palestine Action, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in central London on November 26, 2025. (CARLOS JASSO / AFP)

Head was asked by her lawyer Rajiv Menon: “Did you use violence against security guards or a police officer?” She replied: “No, never.”

Prosecutor Deanna Heer told jurors as the trial began last month that one of the six defendants, Samuel Corner, 23, hit a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer in the back, causing a lumbar spine fracture.

Head, asked on Thursday if she would have participated in action targeting Elbit if she knew someone would have used violence, said: “No, it was not a part of the plan.”

The trial continues.

Palestine Action was founded in 2020 and gained prominence with protests targeting Israeli defense companies and British firms linked to them. It stepped up its actions during the Gaza war, sparked by the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Britain’s then-interior minister Yvette Cooper moved to ban the group shortly after military planes were targeted in June 2025.

More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, with over 200 charged for expressing support for a proscribed organization with placards reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”