London, United Kingdom – Young pro-Palestine activist Qesser Zuhrah, who was released on bail last month, has been arrested again. The 21-year-old was detained on Monday morning at her home in Watford, near London, by masked police officers, as seen in footage shared on social media. She was handcuffed and placed into a vehicle destined for prison.
Campaigner Lisa Minerva Luxx, supporting Zuhrah, told Al Jazeera they believed she was arrested “because of an Instagram story she posted, which allegedly encouraged people to take ‘direct action’”. Hertfordshire Police confirmed the arrest of a 21-year-old woman on suspicion of intentionally encouraging a crime and the “encouragement of terrorism”, without naming Zuhrah.
Zuhrah, first detained in late 2024, is among a group of defendants known as the “Filton 24”. They are alleged to have raided an Elbit Systems UK factory in Filton, near Bristol, on August 6, 2024 – an incident claimed by Palestine Action. The direct action group’s stated objective is to counter Israeli war crimes and what it says is British complicity in them by targeting weapons manufacturers and associated companies. Its main target is Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, which has several UK sites.
After the charge of aggravated burglary was dropped against all members, 23 of them were released on bail last month. Days earlier, the High Court had ruled that the UK’s ban on Palestine Action as a “terror” group was unlawful. However, the ban remains in place, as the home secretary will challenge the High Court ruling in late April. Zuhrah was released in February after spending 15 months on remand without a conviction.
In prison, she joined a rolling hunger strike in protest against the UK’s ban on Palestine Action in mid-2025, a measure that put it on par with groups like ISIL and al-Qaeda, and against prison conditions she described last week as inhumane. She alleged she was subjected to solitary confinement, assaulted, and taunted by guards while on hunger strike. A government spokesperson denied allegations of prison mistreatment, stating that all individuals received medical care. The Palestine Action-linked defendants plan to sue the prisons over these conditions.
Source: www.aljazeera.com