A group of seven pro-Palestine activists suspected of involvement in acts of sabotage against military infrastructure in the United Kingdom are on hunger strike in British prisons and may die, it is claimed.
The Imran Khan & Partners law firm says its clients may die in prison as their hunger strike, which demands concessions including pro-Palestine activists be released from prison pending trial, and that a defence firm they say supports Israel be shut down, continues.
Seven inmates are involved in what was described in left-wing media as a “rolling” hunger strike commenced on November 2nd, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, with the longest-striking having rejected food for 38 days. An eight man is participating in a part-time hunger strike because, it is said, he is diabetic. All of the arrested activists are members of Palestine Action, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom, but their arrests relate to alleged acts that pre-date the government’s decision to ban the organisation.
The lawyers working on behalf of the strikers said five people had now been hospitalised in relation to the hunger strike from within prison, an increase on the two people previously disclosed as having injured themselves thus. Imran Khan & Partners said in a statement cited by The Daily Telegraph as having said: “We are concerned that, should this situation be allowed to continue 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 offence”.
The strikers have been arrested over alleged involvement in the August 6th 2024 raid on Elbit Systems in Patchway, Bristol, and the June 20th 2025 raid on RAF Brize Norton. At Elbit systems, a prison truck was used as a battering ram to smash into the defence factory, where teams of activists are said to have either attempted to keep the authorities at bay, or destroy the equipment inside.
As earlier reported, a court heard how a female police officer allegedly had her back broken by being struck twice by a sledgehammer, once while she was already on the ground. The man accused of that act is not one of the hunger strikers, and the case is ongoing and guilt has not been determined for any charges by a court of law.
The four Elbit systems hunger strikers are all charged with aggravated burglary and criminal damage, with some also facing a charge of violent disorder. Critics say they have been held in pre-trial detention an uncommonly long time.
Member of Parliament Zarah Sultana of the hard-left, pro-Palestine Your Party has stated the Elbit systems accused spending over a year in prison in pre-trial detention breaches their rights — British law generally puts it at six months — and they should be given bail.
At RAF Brize Norton, a team is said to have entered the major military base undetected to use fire extinguishers filled with paint to spray into the engines of Royal Air Force logistics jets. The three Brize Norton suspects are charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
The hunger strikers have something of a laundry list of demands, from immediate personal issues to wider political wants. Among those demands reported in the left-wing press over the past month are for immediate bail for themselves, that their mail and visits in prison not be restricted, that the government’s designation of the Palestine Action group as a proscribed terrorist organisation be lifted, and that Elbit systems be shut down in the United Kingdom.
Niche hard-left-populist UK publisher Novara Media has published criticism of the broader British media for having totally ignored the hunger strikers for over a month, until the hospitalisations began, characterising this as an “establishment media blackout”. It also accuses the government of having refused to discuss it, noting Justice Secretary David Lammy was asked about the hunger strikers last week and responded that he’d never heard of it, an account challenged by striker-sympathetic Members of Parliament who claim to have written to him about the group.
The Elbit Systems hunger strikers are Kamran Ahmed, who was the first to be hospitalised; Teuta Hoxha, who was the second to be hospitalised in November; Qesser Zuhrah, the first hunger striker; and Heba Muraisi. The RAF hunger strikers are Amy Gardiner-Gibson, Jon Cink, and “queer activist” Amu Gib, also one of the first to go on strike. An eigth, Lewie Chiaramello is said to be striking every other day because of diabetes.
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