PALESTINE Action activists smashed sledgehammers into the walls of an Israeli weapons manufacturer’s factory on Christmas Day.

Video footage showed them breaking through the brickwork at Elbit’s UAV Engines’ drone factory in Shenstone, Staffs.

Palestine Action have repeatedly targeted the production site.

At 12.30pm on December 25, activists arrived in buckets attached to two cherry-pickers.

They used demolition tools to target the factory walls while the drivers locked themselves inside the vehicles.

A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Despite state tactics to deter Palestine Action, we remain more determined than ever to bring an end to the British presence of Israel's largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems.

“By breaking the walls of an Israeli weapons factory today, we are standing with the Palestinian people who remain occupied and under Israeli bombardment on Christmas day.

“Brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel’s weapons trade will fall.”

Israel’s largest weapons firm designs and manufactures Wankel-type rotary engines used to power Israel’s Hermes killer drone fleet, according to the activist group.

In addition to producing engines for Elbit’s 450 drones, the engines are also used in the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IMI) Harop Kamikase drone, which is currently being upgraded to kill autonomously, it added, citing export licences showing the company sending drone parts to Israel with the “end-user” listed as the “state of Israel.”

“Today’s action takes place, not only in the context of the Gaza genocide, and with the birthplace of Christmas under occupation, but with a climate of state terror in Britain, being used to try and intimidate protesters,” said Palestine Action.

“These tactics include dawn raids, detention under supposed anti-terror laws, and days of questioning.”