“I hope it doesn’t have to come to that because these demands are very, very simple,” said a friend to one of the activists. “They are asking the British government to uphold international and national law.”
Supporters of Palestine Action hunger strikers protest outside Pentonville prison on December 18, 2025 in London.
(Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Stephen Prager
Dec 19, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Eight Palestine Action activists in the UK are at risk of dying in prison as they remain on hunger strike to protest their detention, according to hundreds of medical professionals.
More than 800 doctors, nurses, and therapists wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy on Thursday to warn that the detainees, who are all between the ages of 20 and 31, were not receiving adequate medical care. The activists are being held in five prisons on remand, meaning that they are kept in prison before trial without being released on bail.
“Without resolution, there is the real and increasingly likely potential that young British citizens will die in prison, having never even been convicted of an offense,” the campaigners said.
At least five of the hunger strikers have reportedly been hospitalized after refusing food for weeks. Two of the strikers, Amu Gib and Qesser Zuhrah, have refused food for 48 days, while another, Heba Muraisi, has refused for 47.
Ella Moulsdale, a fellow activist and friend of Zurah’s, told ITV: “It’s very hard to watch her walk right now. She has almost no energy to, so she walks extremely slowly, with her back hunched in pain. She still wants me to hug her, but she can’t hug back at all.”
“Any day after day 35 is considered final and severe, when your body essentially starts to eat itself,” Moulsdale said. “Her body is clearly working overtime, and it doesn’t have enough fuel to keep her alive.”
The eight hunger strikers are among 33 people arrested in connection with two direct actions against entities they argue are taking part in Israel’s human rights violations in Palestine.
Four were arrested for alleged involvement in a 2024 break-in at a facility in Filton for Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and the primary supplier of weapons and surveillance technology used in the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
After breaking into the facility, activists are accused of having dismantled military equipment, including quadcopter drones, which have been used to kill and maim Palestinians in Gaza, sometimes reportedly playing the sounds of crying women and babies to lure them out of hiding. The activists also allegedly destroyed other weapons systems, computers, and manufacturing equipment, totaling over £1 million. In September, Elbit quietly closed down the site.
Four others are accused of trespassing at a British Royal Air Force base in Norton, where they reportedly sprayed red paint on the engines of two aircraft. According to one report, since December 2023, the RAF has conducted over 1,000 hours worth of surveillance over Gaza, communicating intelligence to the Israeli military.
The Labour Party government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, added Palestine Action to a list of banned “terrorist” organizations in July, which made membership in or support for the group a criminal offense.
According to Amnesty International, more than 600 people were arrested for peacefully supporting the group between November 18 and 29. In October, over 500 protesters were arrested on a single day, mostly for holding signs calling on British authorities to lift the ban.
Since the ban went into effect, more than 2,700 people have been arrested across the UK over support for or involvement with Palestine Action. The UK has seen a more than 660% increase in “terrorism” related arrests since September as a result of the ban.
Dr. James Smith, an emergency physician and lecturer at University College London, told ITV that the activists on hunger strike need specialist medical care that they are not receiving.
According to Smith, 200 members of the British Medical Association wrote a letter to the organization’s leadership “to sound the alarm” about “substandard monitoring and treatment” for the prisoners.
“The hunger strikers are at imminent risk of irreversible damage to their bodies, and of death,” Smith said. “It is my view, as [a National Health Service] doctor, that the complexity of the hunger strikers’ care needs must now be managed with regular specialist input if not continuous monitoring in hospital.”
“Put simply, the hunger strikers are dying,” he added at a press conference Thursday. “They are all now at a critical stage.”
Earlier this week, a group of 51 members of parliament and peers wrote a separate letter urging Lammy to meet with lawyers for the eight prisoners. UK Prison Minister Lord James Timpson dismissed the request, saying he would not meet with any of the prisoners or their attorneys: “I don’t treat any prisoners any differently from any other,” he said.
On Wednesday, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is now an independent MP, wrote Lammy another letter asking if he shared the minister’s satisfaction, and reiterating that the eight prisoners are “at serious risk of death” amid “regular breaches of prison conditions and prison rules.”
“The Ministry of Justice is still refusing to meet with the lawyers or families of hunger strikers being held on remand,” Corbyn said in a post on social media. “This is a shambolic dereliction of duty. I have written to David Lammy, again, imploring him to do the right thing before it is too late.”
Starmer responded to Corbyn’s criticisms himself in Parliament that same day: “He will appreciate there are rules and procedures in place in relation to hunger strikes, and we’re following those rules and procedures.”
The hunger strikers have demanded immediate bail and the right to a fair trial. They have also called for an end to the censorship of their communications, a lift on the ban against Palestine Action, and the closing of all UK sites run by Elbit.
Asked if her friend Zurah would continue to refuse food even as she reaches deadly stages, Moulsdale said, “That’s ultimately her decision to make.”
“I hope it doesn’t have to come to that because these demands are very, very simple,” she said. “They are asking the British government to uphold international and national law.”
Almost one in ten MPs have called for David Lammy to intervene to ensure hunger strikers’ human rights are upheld
Yesterday
Left Foot Forward
62 MPs have added their names
62 MPs have now signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) in parliament calling for the justice secretary David Lammy to intervene to ensure that six remand prisoners currently on hunger strike have their human rights upheld. This is equivalent to almost one in ten MPs in the UK.
The hunger strikers are all on remand having been accused of a series of offences related to activities taken by Palestine Action. They have denied the charges against them, all of which relate to alleged activities which took place prior to Palestine Action being proscribed as a terrorist organisation, and all have been denied bail. They are therefore awaiting trial and have not been convicted of the offences which they are accused of committing, but are nonetheless held in prison.
The hunger strikers are demanding they be granted bail, for Lammy to meet with their legal representatives, for the right to a fair trial and for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed. They are also calling for freedom of expression while they are in prison and an end to what they have described as censorship while in prison, claiming that they have had phone calls blocked, visits disrupted, letters go missing and books banned.
The longest standing hunger strikers have now been refusing food for 48 days. Some of them have now been hospitalised, with their supporters saying their strike has left their health at a ‘critical’ stage.
In signing the EDM, MPs have expressed “extreme concern that six prisoners associated with Palestine Action have felt that they had no other recourse to protest against their prison conditions but to launch a hunger strike” and called for Lammy to “intervene urgently to ensure their treatment is humane and their human rights are upheld”.
The EDM was tabled by Labour MP John McDonnell and has attracted support from MPs from a wide range of different parties. The full list of signatories is as follows:John McDonnell (Labour)
Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour)
Brian Leishman (Labour)
Diane Abbott (Independent)
Ellie Chowns (Green)
Andrew George (Lib Dem)
Imran Hussain (Labour)
Adnan Hussain (Independent)
Nadia Whittome (Labour)
Zarah Sultana (Your Party)
Jeremy Corbyn (Independent)
Apsana Begum (Labour)
Andy McDonald (Labour)
Jon Trickett (Labour)
Colum Eastwood (SDLP)
Clive Lewis (Labour)
Ian Byrne (Labour)
Richard Burgon (Labour)
Brendan O’Hara (SNP)
Shockat Adam (Independent)
Ayoub Khan (Independent)
Seamus Logan (SNP)
Graham Leadbitter (SNP)
Adrian Ramsay (Green)
Claire Hanna (SDLP)
Chris Law (SNP)
Kim Johnson (Labour)
Carla Denyer (Green)
Sian Berry (Green)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour)
Alex Sobel (Labour)
Iqbal Mohamed (Independent)
Lis Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru)
Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru)
Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru)
Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru)
Simon Opher (Labour)
Mary Kelly Foy (Labour)
Dave Doogan (SNP)
Steve Witherden (Labour)
Cat Smith (Labour)
Abtisam Mohamed (Labour)
Douglas McAllister (Labour)
Cat Eccles (Labour)
Kirsty Blackman (SNP)
Kate Osborne (Labour)
Patricia Ferguson (Labour)
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour)
Chris Hinchliff (Labour)
Stephen Flynn (SNP)
Pete Wishart (SNP)
Ian Roome (Lib Dem)
Rachael Maskell (Labour)
Stephen Gethins (SNP)
Olivia Blake (Labour)
Grahame Morris (Labour)
Tahir Ali (Labour)
Elaine Stewart (Labour)
Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem)
Lorraine Beavers (Labour)
Layla Moran (Lib Dem)
Desmond Swayne (Conservative)
In response to the hunger strikes, the prison minister Lord Timpson has said: “We are very experienced at dealing with hunger strikes. Unfortunately, over the last five years we have averaged over 200 hunger strike incidents every year and the processes that we have are well-established and they work very well – with prisons working alongside our NHS partners every day, making sure our systems are robust and working – and they are.
“I am very clear. I don’t treat any prisoners differently to others. That is why we will not be meeting any prisoners or their representatives. We have a justice system that is based on the separation of powers, and the independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our system.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Ben Dance / FCDO – Creative Commons
62 MPs have added their names
62 MPs have now signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) in parliament calling for the justice secretary David Lammy to intervene to ensure that six remand prisoners currently on hunger strike have their human rights upheld. This is equivalent to almost one in ten MPs in the UK.
The hunger strikers are all on remand having been accused of a series of offences related to activities taken by Palestine Action. They have denied the charges against them, all of which relate to alleged activities which took place prior to Palestine Action being proscribed as a terrorist organisation, and all have been denied bail. They are therefore awaiting trial and have not been convicted of the offences which they are accused of committing, but are nonetheless held in prison.
The hunger strikers are demanding they be granted bail, for Lammy to meet with their legal representatives, for the right to a fair trial and for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed. They are also calling for freedom of expression while they are in prison and an end to what they have described as censorship while in prison, claiming that they have had phone calls blocked, visits disrupted, letters go missing and books banned.
The longest standing hunger strikers have now been refusing food for 48 days. Some of them have now been hospitalised, with their supporters saying their strike has left their health at a ‘critical’ stage.
In signing the EDM, MPs have expressed “extreme concern that six prisoners associated with Palestine Action have felt that they had no other recourse to protest against their prison conditions but to launch a hunger strike” and called for Lammy to “intervene urgently to ensure their treatment is humane and their human rights are upheld”.
The EDM was tabled by Labour MP John McDonnell and has attracted support from MPs from a wide range of different parties. The full list of signatories is as follows:John McDonnell (Labour)
Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour)
Brian Leishman (Labour)
Diane Abbott (Independent)
Ellie Chowns (Green)
Andrew George (Lib Dem)
Imran Hussain (Labour)
Adnan Hussain (Independent)
Nadia Whittome (Labour)
Zarah Sultana (Your Party)
Jeremy Corbyn (Independent)
Apsana Begum (Labour)
Andy McDonald (Labour)
Jon Trickett (Labour)
Colum Eastwood (SDLP)
Clive Lewis (Labour)
Ian Byrne (Labour)
Richard Burgon (Labour)
Brendan O’Hara (SNP)
Shockat Adam (Independent)
Ayoub Khan (Independent)
Seamus Logan (SNP)
Graham Leadbitter (SNP)
Adrian Ramsay (Green)
Claire Hanna (SDLP)
Chris Law (SNP)
Kim Johnson (Labour)
Carla Denyer (Green)
Sian Berry (Green)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour)
Alex Sobel (Labour)
Iqbal Mohamed (Independent)
Lis Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru)
Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru)
Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru)
Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru)
Simon Opher (Labour)
Mary Kelly Foy (Labour)
Dave Doogan (SNP)
Steve Witherden (Labour)
Cat Smith (Labour)
Abtisam Mohamed (Labour)
Douglas McAllister (Labour)
Cat Eccles (Labour)
Kirsty Blackman (SNP)
Kate Osborne (Labour)
Patricia Ferguson (Labour)
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour)
Chris Hinchliff (Labour)
Stephen Flynn (SNP)
Pete Wishart (SNP)
Ian Roome (Lib Dem)
Rachael Maskell (Labour)
Stephen Gethins (SNP)
Olivia Blake (Labour)
Grahame Morris (Labour)
Tahir Ali (Labour)
Elaine Stewart (Labour)
Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem)
Lorraine Beavers (Labour)
Layla Moran (Lib Dem)
Desmond Swayne (Conservative)
In response to the hunger strikes, the prison minister Lord Timpson has said: “We are very experienced at dealing with hunger strikes. Unfortunately, over the last five years we have averaged over 200 hunger strike incidents every year and the processes that we have are well-established and they work very well – with prisons working alongside our NHS partners every day, making sure our systems are robust and working – and they are.
“I am very clear. I don’t treat any prisoners differently to others. That is why we will not be meeting any prisoners or their representatives. We have a justice system that is based on the separation of powers, and the independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our system.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Ben Dance / FCDO – Creative Commons
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