Seven held after Paris protest against arms company linked to Israel

Reporter remains in custody after refusing to give police access to her phone, says her employer

Seven people have been arrested over a protest at the headquarters of Exxelia in Paris

Seven people including a journalist remained in custody in Paris on Wednesday, 24 hours after their arrest for participating in a protest at the offices of a company that makes chips for drones sold to Israel, according to the prosecutor's office.

The arrests were confirmed after French media organisation Blast said on X that one of its journalists had been detained while she was covering the protest at the headquarters of weapons company Exxelia.

The prosecutor's office told AFP that the people were detained for “joining a group with the aim of committing voluntary damage … after entering the site of company Exxelia”.

The reporter, who has not been named, had not been released because she refused to give police access to her phone, said Blast. It is understood that the six other people also remain in detention.

NGO Reporters Without Borders asked for the reporter's immediate release and warned that her sources could be compromised.

The journalist had been working for weeks on an investigative piece on French weapons sales to Israel, which have attracted renewed interest since the start of Israel's military offensive against Gaza in October.

NGOs in a number of European countries have in recent months sued their governments in a bid to halt such sales. In France, 11 NGOS filed three separate cases in front of a Paris court. They were all rejected.

France is one of Israel's weapons providers, though not among the most important. In 2022, it delivered just over €15 million in armaments, according to Amnesty France.

Exxelia has been under investigation since 2018 for complicity in war crimes after the family of three children killed in July 2014 in an Israeli missile attack in Gaza filed a complaint at a Paris court.

Analysis of missile debris found in the house where they died showed it included components made by French company Eurofarad – which was bought in 2015 by Exxelia Technologies – and sold to Israeli company Rafael.

Similar protests against weapons manufacturers that have Israeli clients have taken place across Europe. Footage of protesters from Palestine Action damaging equipment in south-east England was released on Tuesday.

The demonstrators, who wore orange jumpsuits, were shown in the video dismantling three fences to enter the Instro Precision site in the town of Sandwich. They then crawled in through a smashed window and threw stock to the ground and smashed computers with a crowbar.

Palestine Action says Instro Precision is owned by Elbit, one of Israel's largest defence contractors, and produces military-grade electro-optical equipment at the site.

Seven people were arrested and an investigation is under way, Kent Police said in a statement.