PALESTINE solidarity activists have stormed the new offices of a firm in Manchester which recruits workers for Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems UK.

Direct action group Palestine Action said recruitment firm iO Associates has expanded its operations into Manchester in an expansion of its “defence recruitment” activities. 

It already has offices in Bristol, Reading, Newcastle and London.

The firm has operations in nine countries and recruits for Israeli-owned Elbit Systems, which has four factories in Britain producing military drones for Israel.

Elbit markets the drones, which have been used against Palestinians in Gaza, as “battle-tested.”

Palestine Action said that during Friday’s occupation of the offices in Manchester, an iO director assaulted activists and the 14-year-old daughter of a journalist, smashing her phone. Activists filmed the incidents in which they chanted “murderer” at the director.

The group said that after the occupation, 21 out of 22 iO website postings advertising jobs at Elbit Systems were removed.

Manchester Palestine Action said: “Manchester won’t accept a recruitment agency for Israel’s criminal weapons firm Elbit Systems. People here are disgusted iO associates have expanded into the city.

“How dare they when Israel has been exposed as an apartheid state again and again? Israel continues to massacre Palestinians, steal more land and imprison people for defending their homes from ethnic cleansing.

“We won’t stop until all Elbit’s recruiters are kicked out of the city and Elbit is forced out of Britain for good.”

Palestine Action regularly targets Elbit’s factories and offices in the UK. Machinery has been wrecked and buildings daubed with red paint representing the blood of Palestinians shed using Elbit weapons.

An Elbit factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester, was closed permanently after a sustained two years of direct action by Palestine Action and protests by Palestine supporters including Oldham Peace & Justice campaign.

Palestine Action said its campaign against iO Associates would continue until the firm publicly announces it has cut all ties with Elbit Systems UK. 

iO Associates is based in Bristol and is part of the multinational conglomerate Precision Resource Group.

iO Associates was invited to comment.