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UK police arrest four over pro-Palestinian protest at air base
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 27, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 27, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
UK police arrested four individuals linked to a pro-Palestinian protest at an air base, involving vandalism of military planes. The government is considering using anti-terrorism laws against the group involved.
LONDON (Reuters) -British counter-terrorism police have arrested four people in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest last week in which military planes were sprayed with paint at an air base in England, authorities said on Friday.
A woman, 29, and two men aged 36 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, while another woman, 41, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, the police statement said.
Two activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base in Oxfordshire in central England on June 20, spraying red paint over two planes used for refuelling and transport, and further damaging them with crowbars, an act that was condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as "disgraceful".
Within days of the incident, interior minister Yvette Cooper set out plans to use anti-terrorism laws to ban Palestine Action, saying its actions had become more aggressive and caused millions of pounds of damage.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
In response to Friday's arrests, the campaign group accused authorities of "cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine".
The maximum sentence for preparation of terrorist acts, or to assist others in such preparation, in Britain is a life sentence. The government is also reviewing security across all defence sites.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed accusations that it is committing genocide in the war in Gaza which began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage into Gaza.
Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Sachin Ravikumar; writing by Muvija M; editing by William James and Andrew Heavens)
The arrested individuals were charged with suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Two activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base, spraying red paint over military planes used for refuelling and transport.
The maximum sentence for preparation of terrorist acts, or assisting others in such preparation, in Britain is a life sentence.
The UK government, through interior minister Yvette Cooper, has proposed using anti-terrorism laws to ban Palestine Action due to their increasingly aggressive actions.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firms since the escalation of the conflict in Gaza.
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