NORTHAMPTON — Four anti-war activists secured to a pickup truck blocked the shipping and receiving gate at L3Harris, Thursday morning, to protest the company’s role in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Police responded to remove the activists and some 20 supporters at the request of the defense contractor, but found the four protesters secured to two tons of concrete inside the truck.

“‘A’ for creativity,” Northampton Police Capt. Victor Caputo said as he observed the activists sitting beside the truck with one arm somehow attached inside the bed.

One of the protesters, Sonya Epstein, declined to detail just how they were secured, saying only it was in a “very cool and awesome way.”

The action, organized by Demilitarize Western Massachusetts, began around 10:30 a.m. and was intended to interfere with L3Harris’ shipping capacity.

“We are committed, rain or shine,” media liaison Zehra Parvez said as a steady rain fell. “If we can slow the supply chain down just one hour, or one day, it’s worth it.”

L3Harris is a defense contractor that manufactures a wide range of products and technologies for military use. Headquartered in Florida, it is the ninth largest weapons manufacturer in the world, and a “leading supplier to the Israeli Defense Forces,” according to the anti-war group.

Demonstrators have routinely targeted the company. Around two dozen protesters blocked the company’s driveway entrances for seven hours Oct. 12, using a boat and two boat trailers with several people chained to the makeshift barricades. Police arrested six people at that protest.

“L3 is part of so many different types of violence and atrocity, the fact that they exist anywhere is unacceptable,” said Clara Wagner of Holyoke, one of the activists secured to the truck. “They’re complicit in genocide.”

Wagner, Epstein, Parvez and Priscilla Lynch were among those arrested Oct. 12.

On Thursday, about 10 Northampton police officers responded to the incident. After an hour or more, members of a State Police Special Emergency Response Team arrived. Caputo said they’re specially trained in extracting people from these types of situations.

As officers prepared to begin the operation, an L3 employee again asked protesters to leave, and Caputo said those who did not would face arrest. All except Lynch, the group’s police liaison, and a legal observer chose to leave and join other protesters on the Chapel Street sidewalk. Members of the press were allowed to stay.

As police contemplated the concrete block in the truck bed, Caputo told the activists that police had called for four wheelchairs so they could safely move the truck, with protesters attached, away from flammable material inside the gates.

Police then asked all outside observers to leave the area. Parvez reported that the four protesters were freed from the truck shortly before 4:30 p.m.

James Pentland can be reached at jpentland@gazettenet.com.