After more than 17 hours of deliberation, a jury at Birmingham crown court has failed to reach a verdict over whether four pro-Palestine activists committed criminal damage at an arms factory.

During the trial, the jury saw footage from helicopters and CCTV cameras which showed the defendants crashing through the site’s front gate and damaging solar panels on its roof.

But the jury was also shown a social media post demonstrating that the activists’ goal was to disrupt the supply of UK-made fighter jet components to Israel.

In that social media post, the four defendants were wearing T-Shirts bearing the names of Palestinians who had been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including the author Refaat Alareer.

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Mike Higgins was arrested again outside yesterday’s Palestine Action court case.

“In a sense, it doesn’t matter if we lost or won; this will help to build our movement and keep us strong.”

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“We went out to war with our heads held high, as lions emerge from their dens.

We walk on the edges of swords,

And we approach death through its own gate.

Our enemies will know that we mounted death itself out of mercy for it”

— The late Al-Qassam fighter Basel Ahmad Abu Shamala.

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