How pro-Palestine activists broke into UK's largest airbase

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Palestine Action, a UK-based Palestine advocacy group, entered the Royal Air Force's Brize Norton airbase and defaced two military aircraft with spray paint. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the act as 'disgraceful' and 'vandalism'. But how did they manage to breach the base's defences? read more
Palestine Action, a UK-based Palestine advocacy group, put up a video of the incident on social media. Image courtesy: X
Pro-Palestinian activists have broken into the UK's largest airbase.
Palestine Action, a UK-based Palestine advocacy group, entered the Royal Air Force's Brize Norton airbase and defaced two military aircraft with spray paint.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the act 'disgraceful' and 'vandalism'.
But what happened? Why is this a big deal? What do we know about the group?
Let's take a closer look
What happened?
First, let's take a brief look at the group.
Palestine Action's website describes it as 'direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime'.
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It says its main target is Elbit Systems – which is the biggest weapons manufacturer for Israel.
Palestine Action says its strategy is to take 'sustained and focused direct action against key targets' to topple Israel's military-industrial complex.
Now let's take a look at what happened on Friday night.
Palestine Action said two of its members broke into the RAF's Brize Norton airbase in central England's Oxfordshire.
The group's members spray painted two military aircraft with red paint – symbolising blood – including into its turbines.
The group also spray painted the red paint on the runway and put up a Palestinian flag.
The group put up a video of its actions on X.
BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.
Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zzmFqGKW8N — Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
'Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel ../Israeli fighter jets,' the group said in a statement.
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'Britain isn't just complicit, it's an active participant in the Gaza genocide and war crimes across the Middle East,' Palestine Action said in a statement.
'By decommissioning two military planes, Palestine Action have directly intervened in the genocide and prevented crimes against the Palestinian people,' it added.
Why does this matter?
Because this is a huge embarrassment for the British government.
Brize Norton, with over 6000 employees, is the UK's largest airbase.
It is also the place the British refuelling fleet calls home.
One of the craft on the base is used to fly the King and Prime Minister on official engagements.
However, defence sources told The Telegraph that Palestine Action were mistaken and that the UK does not help refuel planes that participate in Israeli military operations.
This was backed up by a source that told CNN that RAF Voyagers do not carry any weapons for Israeli forces or help refuel their aircraft.
A spokesperson for Starmer said the government was reviewing security across all British defence sites.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the act 'disgraceful' and 'vandalism'. Reuters
Britain's defence ministry and police were investigating.
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'It is our responsibility to support those who defend us,' the defence ministry said.
It slammed the 'vandalism of Royal Air Force assets'.
Lord West, Labour minister for UK security, called the development extremely worrying".
'We can't allow thing like this to happen at all,' West, former head of the Royal Navy told BBC. He added that such developments were 'really a problem' for national security.
With inputs from agencies