logo
Reckless pro-Palestine protesters break into warehouse and damage nearly £1m of military equipment destined for UKRAINE

Reckless pro-Palestine protesters break into warehouse and damage nearly £1m of military equipment destined for UKRAINE

The Suna day ago

A SWARM of pro-Palestinian protesters caused nearly £1million worth of damage to military equipment which had been earmarked for Ukraine.
Some 150 dim-witted activists wielding hammers and spray paint went on a warehouse rampage - reportedly causing severe damage to several tanks.
4
4
4
They raided hangars and smashed up computers at the facility in Belgium owned by OIP Land Systems - who produce military equipment for Ukraine.
But the idiotic protesters, dressed in white overalls and masks, wrongly believed that the equipment was being shipped to Israel, 7sur7 reported.
Taking part in the Stop Arming Israel campaign, they first broke into and ransacked the warehouse's offices in Tournai.
The dopey demonstrators then headed for the storage units before vandalising the facility and the critical equipment inside it.
They brought along disc cutters and hammers during the frenzy on Monday which "severely damaged some vehicles", the firm's CEO Freddy Verslyus said.
He branded the group of vandals "Hamas sympathisers".
The next shipment of military aid which - was reserved specifically to help Volodymyr Zelensky fend off Russia's meatgrinder invasion - has now been delayed.
OIP Land Systems specialises in the maintenance, repair, and modernisation of military vehicles.
Since the Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion, the company has already delivered around 260 armoured vehicles to the Ukrainian army.
Versluys said: "The next delivery is now delayed by at least a month.
Vladimir Putin rages 'all of Ukraine is ours' as he threatens to seize key city while Kyiv slams tyrant as 'deranged'
"That's all these Hamas sympathisers will have achieved with their actions."
The fuming CEO also announced his intention to file a complaint against unknown parties following the huge £1million damage bill.
The military company was reportedly targeted by the protesters because it is owned by Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.
The activists reportedly believe that Elbit supplies 85 per cent of the Israel Defence Force's drones, and most of their ground military equipment.
But the raging protesters were left mortified after the firm's CEO claimed that his company had not produced defence systems for Israel in over 20 years.
At least 30 people were arrested following the embarrassing raid, Stop Arming Israel said.
Tournai police arrived to the scene supported by Borinage cops who also came with riot control vehicles.
A helicopter was also scrambled during the mindless rampage.
Some activists fled to neighbouring villages in order to escape, before being chased down by cops.
OIP Land Systems has provided defence products to Ukraine on several occasions.
The military equipment provided includes Leopard 1 tanks, which are manufactured at the Tournai plant.
It comes after two pro-Palestine activists broke into an RAF base and vandalised two planes in a "grotesque" breach of security.
The men were seen breaking into RAF Brize Norton in a video shared online by group Palestine Action.
The UK's defence ministry slammed the "vandalism of Royal Air Force assets" in a scathing statement.
4

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city
Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city

Reuters

time37 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city

June 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday that his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther southwest. After their initial failed advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks after the February 2022 invasion, Russian troops have focused on capturing all of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target. Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults, with the regional governor urging remaining residents this week to evacuate as infrastructure breaks down. Top Ukrainian commander Oleksander Syrskyi, writing on Telegram on Saturday, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting. "The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing," Syrskyi said. "The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors." A spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, Viktor Trehubov, told the Ukrinform news agency that Kostiantynivka and the city of Pokrovsk to the west were "the main arena of battles and the Kremlin's strategic ambitions". Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian forces had withstood in the past week a powerful attack near the village of Yablunivka in northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have been trying to establish a buffer zone inside the Ukrainian border. Russia's Defence Ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka -- further southwest, near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure. Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the 40-month-old war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, though they do not fully hold any of the four regions. Moscow has said in recent weeks that its troops have made advances in areas adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk region, which lies next to both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian officials have denied those reports.

Kneecap and Bob Vylan comments at Glastonbury investigated by police
Kneecap and Bob Vylan comments at Glastonbury investigated by police

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Kneecap and Bob Vylan comments at Glastonbury investigated by police

Police are assessing videos of comments made by Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury to decide whether any offences may have been committed. In a post on social media Avon and Somerset Police said: 'We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon. 'Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.' The videos being assessed are understood to include footage of punk duo Bob Vylan and Irish rap trio Kneecap. The punk duo performed on the stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of: 'Free, free Palestine' and: 'Death, death to the IDF'. During Kneecap's set, band member Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.' The band also led crowds in chants of: 'Free Palestine'.

Protesters line highway in Florida Everglades to oppose 'Alligator Alcatraz'
Protesters line highway in Florida Everglades to oppose 'Alligator Alcatraz'

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Protesters line highway in Florida Everglades to oppose 'Alligator Alcatraz'

A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center. Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail — as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species. Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks entering the site while he protested for hours. Environmental degradation was a big reason why he came out Saturday. But as a South Florida city commissioner, he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition. 'People I know are in tears, and I wasn't far from it,' he said. Florida officials have forged ahead over the past week in constructing the compound dubbed as 'Alligator Alcatraz' within the Everglades' humid swamplands. The facility will have temporary structures like heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The state estimates by early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation. The compound's proponents have noted its location in the Florida wetlands — teeming with massive reptiles like alligators and invasive Burmese pythons — make it an ideal spot for immigration detention. 'Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's a lot of alligators,' Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday. 'No one's going anywhere.' Under DeSantis, Florida has made an aggressive push for immigration enforcement and has been supportive of the federal government's broader crackdown on illegal immigration. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has backed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said will be partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But Native American leaders in the region have seen the construction as an encroachment onto their sacred homelands, which prompted Saturday's protest. In Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is, 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, remain. Others have raised human rights concerns over what they condemn as the inhumane housing of immigrants. Worries about environmental impacts have also been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention center plans. 'The Everglades is a vast, interconnected system of waterways and wetlands, and what happens in one area can have damaging impacts downstream," Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said. 'So it's really important that we have a clear sense of any wetland impacts happening in the site.' Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesperson, said Friday in response to the litigation that the facility was a 'necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a preexisting airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment.' Until the site undergoes a comprehensive environmental review and public comment is sought, the environmental groups say construction should pause. The facility's speedy establishment is 'damning evidence' that state and federal agencies hope it will be 'too late' to reverse their actions if they are ordered by a court to do so, said Elise Bennett, a Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney working on the case. The potential environmental hazards also bleed into other aspects of Everglades life, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk trails and explore the marshes on airboats, said Floridians for Public Lands founder Jessica Namath, who attended the protest. To place an immigration detention center there makes the area unwelcoming to visitors and feeds into the misconception that the space is in 'the middle of nowhere,' she said. 'Everybody out here sees the exhaust fumes, sees the oil slicks on the road, you know, they hear the sound and the noise pollution. You can imagine what it looks like at nighttime, and we're in an international dark sky area,' Namath said. 'It's very frustrating because, again, there's such disconnect for politicians.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store