2024 Filton Elbit Systems break-in

The 2024 Filton Elbit Systems break-in was a high-profile direct action carried out by members of the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action on 6 August 2024 at the Elbit Systems UK facility at the Aztec West Business Park in Filton, near Bristol, England.^[1][2][3] The site is a research, development and manufacturing hub for Elbit, an Israeli military technology company. The activists drove a repurposed prison van into the compound, breached security fences, entered the facility and caused substantial damage to property and equipment; the action also involved confrontations with security personnel and police.^[4] Several activists were arrested and later charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage, and violent disorder. One defendant is additionally charged with grievous bodily harm for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer. The break-in sparked national debate about protest tactics, the use of anti-terror laws, and the role of arms manufacturing in British domestic and foreign policy. All defendants were found not guilty of aggravated burglary.

Palestine Action is an activist network that targets firms associated with the Israeli military, especially companies it says supply weapons used against Palestinians. Prior to August 2024, the group had undertaken smaller-scale protests, blockades, and occupations at Elbit-linked sites. Their strategy emphasises direct action, including sabotage, to disrupt what they view as a "war-machine infrastructure."

Elbit's Filton facility, which is often referred to in reporting as the Horizon site, was opened in July 2023. Elbit had held a separate lease in the Aztec West business park since 2019 for other UK operations, but the specific Horizon/H2 Filton facility that Palestine Action targeted was inaugurated in July 2023.^[5]

The facility had been under repeated protest pressure. According to activist supporters, the site manufactured quadcopter drones, among other systems, which they claim are used by the Israeli military in Gaza. The Filton site's existence and operation attracted sustained opposition from Palestine Action.

In the early hours of 6 August 2024, a group of Palestine Action activists drove a decommissioned prison van into the perimeter fence of the Elbit Systems site in Filton, using the vehicle effectively as a battering ram to breach the outer security barrier.^[6]

After breaking through, the activists entered the facility. Inside, they used tools including sledgehammers, crowbars and fire extinguishers filled with red paint to vandalise equipment, walls, and floors. According to the prosecution at their later trial, they damaged drones, technical systems and other sensitive materials, and sprayed red paint to symbolise "blood."^[4] It's estimated over £1 million in damages were caused to the facility.

During the break-in, there was a violent confrontation between the activists and responding security staff and police. Bodycam and CCTV footage shown at trial allegedly depicts one of the activists striking Police Sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer while she was on the ground, causing serious injury. The defendant, a then 23-year-old man, is charged with grievous bodily harm. Other police officers reported being threatened and, in one account, having a hammer swung at them.

Six people were arrested at the site that day, while additional arrests followed in nationwide raids in the days and months afterward.^[7] The total number of activists charged in relation to the break-in eventually reached 24, a group widely referred to as the "Filton 24."

Immediately after the break-in, the arrested suspects were detained under the UK Terrorism Act, allowing extended detention without charge. However, the formal charges later brought by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were not terrorism offences; instead they included aggravated burglary, criminal damage,^[8] and violent disorder.^[9] Nevertheless, the CPS indicated it would argue the offences had a "terrorist connection," which could be treated as an aggravating factor at sentencing.^[10] For the charge of aggravated burglary to be successful, the prosecution needed to prove the defendants entered the weapons factory with the intent to injure the people inside.^[9]

The first major trial involving a subset of six activists - those accused of entering the factory - was scheduled for November 2025 at Woolwich Crown Court. By the time of the trial, some of the defendants had been held on remand for over a year, exceeding the usual six-month limit for being detained pre-trial without bail.^[11] The defendants denied all charges against them.^[12] The judge, Justice Johnson, ruled inadmissible the defendants' defence of "lawful excuse": that they had done what they had done to prevent a great harm - they'd destroyed weapons that would have been used to kill civilians in Gaza.^[13]

During proceedings, police released to the press edited prosecution footage from the night of 6 August 2024.^[8][9] The court was shown body-worn police footage, CCTV and video taken by activists' own devices including GoPros, capturing the van breach, the interior damage and the confrontations with police and security staff.^[4] The defence had to push during the trial for access to unredacted footage and correspondence between the police and Elbit staff. Some footage was missing. Newly-release footage showed Elbit security staff entering the factory with a whip or holding a sledgehammer.^[8] The footage showed much of the violence was initiated by security staff.^[9] During examination, the police admitted Elbit had sole access to the factory CCTV footage for two days; correspondence, in the defence's words, showed the police "chatting with Israel's largest arms manufacturer about what the defence counsel might do" if the footage was edited excessively.^[8]

Police accounts changed under cross-examination by the defence. For example, in one attending officer's statement they said they saw one of the defendants holding a sledge hammer, but admitted under examination that it was one of the security staff who actually held it. There were two alleged a assaults by the security guard on one of the defendants.^[8]

Summing up was expected to be completed on Friday 9 January.^[14] The trial ran for 10 weeks.^[15] On 4 February, after deliberating for over 36 hours,^[16] the jury returned a verdict of 'not guilty' for all six defendants regarding the charge of aggravated burglary. Other charges against these (criminal damage and violent disorder) resulted in no verdicts being returned. Three defendants, Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin, were found not guilty of violent disorder.^[17]

All the remaining defendants of the so-called Filton 24 were acquitted of aggravated burglary on 18 February after prosecutors were unable to provide evidence to support the charge.^[18]

In September 2025 Elbit Systems UK announced the closure of the Aztec West site following the attack and other similar ones done before and afterwards by copycats.^[19]

Evans suffered fracture to a lumbar vertebrae, was left in severe pain and was unable to carry out normal activities, she was off work for about three months and later returned on reduced duties.^[4] The doctors examining Evans's first X-rays or a later MRI scan didn't identify any bone damage. The injury required painkillers and physiotherapy to recover and resulted in no long-term consequences.^[9]

• Filton trial defence speeches