FOUR activists scaled Somerset Council’s County Hall today over the public body’s links to Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

They unfurled banners reading: “Somerset Council are profiting off genocide. Evict Elbit Now!” and “Somerset Council can evict Elbit but chooses profits. Blood is on your hands!”

They sprayed the building in red paint and attached themselves to each other using lock-on devices to obstruct the entrance.

Somerset Council are the landlords of Aztec West 600, the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems.

The council has made plans to sell the property, prompting residents to repeatedly disrupt council meetings, demanding the public body terminate the lease before selling the freehold of the property.

One of the activists taking part said that as landlords to the arms manfacturer, the council was “directly responsible for the genocide that is going on in Gaza and it has to stop.

“The council has to evict Elbit immediately.”