In a startling breach of security, activists from a Pro-Palestinian group on Friday broke into Britain’s largest air force base and damaged two aircraft in what they said was a protest against the country’s military support for Israel.
The group, called Palestine Action, posted footage online showing two people using electric scooters to move around the base, R.A.F. Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, which is used for overseas operations.
In a statement, Palestine Action said that two activists had sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers and damaged them with crowbars, as well as spraying more red paint on the runway to “symbolize Palestinian bloodshed.” The group said that the two people who carried out the vandalism “managed to evade security and arrest” during the incursion in the early hours of Friday morning.
In a statement, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the incident “disgraceful,” saying: “Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day. It is our responsibility to support those who defend us.”
Palestine Action has carried out a series of acts of vandalism at high-profile and supposedly secure locations, including defense manufacturers.
Thames Valley Police, the force responsible for the area, said in a statement that officers were working with the Ministry of Defense and with the R.A.F. to investigate. Inquiries “are ongoing to locate and arrest those responsible,” the force noted.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defense said, “We strongly condemn this vandalism of Royal Air Force assets. We are working closely with the police who are investigating.”
The ministry did not immediately respond to a question on whether it would open a review of security at the site.
Grant Shapps, a former British defense secretary, wrote on social media that there needed to be a “full security review.”
“Storming an RAF base isn’t protest — it’s a national security breach,” he wrote. “The blame lies squarely with these reckless activists, but ministers must now explain how on earth it was allowed to happen.”
In its statement on Friday, Palestine Action claimed that the targeted planes “can carry military cargo and are used to refuel” military aircraft, including fighter jets, from the British, Israeli and militaries.
But Greg Bagwell, a former senior R.A.F. commander and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the planes damaged by the group were incompatible with Israeli fighter aircraft and could not be used to refuel them.
“They couldn’t have gotten a more wrong aircraft,” he said in an interview. “They have targeted aircraft that are not the aircraft they think they are.”
The Israeli Air Force flies American-built fighter planes such as the F-15, the F-16 and the F-35A, Mr. Bagwell said, all of which can only be fueled with a boom-style method that is not used by the planes that were damaged on Friday.
Palestine Action has previously conducted vandalism and protests at sites in Britain operated by the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems and at companies with links to that firm, and also at other defense companies.
Several activists have been prosecuted over the protests, including five people who were imprisoned last year for causing about $1.3 million of damage to a weapons equipment factory in Glasgow in June 2022.
Britain’s largest R.A.F. base, Brize Norton houses about 5,800 service personnel, 300 civilian staff members and 1,200 contractors.
Mr. Bagwell said that he believed many military bases around the world were vulnerable to the kind of intrusion the group made on Friday.
“Airfields are large pieces of real estate that have miles of fence line,” he said. “It’s not an easy piece of territory to protect everywhere. Anybody with a wire cutter or ladders could be able to get in.”
Adding more human protection or electronic monitoring along every part of a major military base like Brize Norton would be very expensive. But Mr. Bagwell said that officials needed to take the risk seriously.
He said that the breach showed that it would not have been difficult for terrorists or agents of a foreign government to have done something more sinister at the base.
“It was exactly the sort of activity that the likes of Russia and Iran would like to promote,” he said. “This time it was a protester, but next time it could be someone who was doing something on behalf of others.”
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