Pro-Gaza campaigners have taken part in a protest at County Hall for the second time in recent months, calling on Devon County Council (DCC) to divest funds from companies that sell arms to Israel.

About 30 activists, including members of Totnes Friends of Palestine, joined the protest last week – the second since August - demanding DCC withdraw a reported £84m invested in a pension fund in companies linked to weapons sales to Israel. The firms include BAE Systems, Barclays, Rolls Royce and Babcock.

According to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 45,600 people, including 17,492 children, have so far been killed and more than 106,000 injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The pro-Gaza groups say that while the investments remain, DCC’s pension fund is “profiting from companies that are assisting in the massacre”.

Earlier this month at an investment and pension fund committee meeting, officers said the fund “was not directly invested in the companies concerned”, although they also added that the complex nature of the fund made it difficult to divest the shares.

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson queried whether the difficulty to divest could be a justification for not taking action.

DCC also sold £2m worth of investments in US-based firms earlier this year.

In a written statement, Cllr James Morrish, DCC’s chair of the investment and pension fund committee, said members supported “the exclusion from investment portfolios of companies manufacturing controversial weapons” while expressing solidarity “with the innocent people directly affected by the ongoing situation in Israel and Gaza”.

The latest protest took on added significance as the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister and a reportedly dead Hamas commander over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Earlier this month, an Amnesty International investigation concluded that Israel was committing genocide.