Protesters: We were barracked on jet home

Seven British peace activists who were trapped by gunfire in Bethlehem for two days are back in Britain today after facing a barrage of abuse from Israeli passengers on the flight home.

Police met the scheduled British Airways flight as it landed at Heathrow from Tel Aviv after several angry Israeli passengers launched a verbal attack on the group.

The Britons - three women and four men who included comedian Jeremy Hardy - say they went to Bethlehem to "highlight the brutality of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories".

They were trapped in their hotel in Bethlehem after the Israeli military moved in to the area, and only got out after the British Consulate negotiated their safe passage.

Some of the other passengers on flight BA164 could not contain their anger at the group. While newsmen waited for them at a Heathrow arrivals hall last night, one Israeli man called the activists "supporters of terrorism".

One of the activists, Londoner Chris Dunham, 31, was injured when a piece of shrapnel became embedded in his finger after he was shot at by Israeli soldiers as the group tried to deliver supplies to families in Beit Jala.

Joanne Bird, 30, from Manchester, said: "We were in Bethlehem as peaceful protesters. We were fired on with live ammunition."