MORE Palestine Action activists have been remanded in custody after being arrested over attacks on an Israeli-owned arms factory in Bristol, bringing the total number of arrests to 18.

In August, Palestine Action volunteers targeted a factory at Filton in Bristol operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer.

Elbit has five factories in Britain supplying weapons to Israel.

Ten activists involved in the operation at the Filton factory were arrested in August and were remanded to prison.

Last week, eight more were arrested in raids on their homes. They appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on Friday and were remanded to prison, Palestine Action said at the weekend.

The group said the eight intend to appeal to the Crown Court to be released on bail and accused police of wrongly using counter-terror legislation against them.

“All eight, as with 10 others charged in August, face criminal — not terror — charges, despite having been arrested and interrogated under Terrorism Act powers deployed to deny them their rights,” the group said.