MORE than 1,000 Palestine supporters marched on an Israel-owned arms factory in Newcastle yesterday as demands for a ceasefire in Gaza continued at demonstrations and marches across Britain.

Protesters were met with a heavy police presence as an estimated 1,200 people marched to Pearson Engineering’s site in Newcastle’s West End.

The factory’s products include “robotic combat vehicles” which are exported to Israel. The company boasts that the vehicles “take humans away from dull, dangerous and dirty tasks.”

In 2022 the firm was taken over by Rafael, Israel’s third-largest weapons producer, which is owned by the Israeli state.

North East Against Racism and Palestine supporters are running a Shut Down Rafael campaign and said the protest was their biggest yet, with students from the University of Newcastle joining the march.

One protester said: “We won’t be complicit in genocide being exported from our city.”