Palestine Action Prisoners’ Hunger Strike to Become Biggest Since Irish Republicans

Six prisoners held on remand in the UK for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action have gone on hunger strike and say they won’t eat until an Israeli weapons firm shuts its UK sites. 

Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Jon Cink, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta ‘T’ Hoxha and Qesser Zurah are collectively refusing food after experiencing what they call “systematic abuse” by the prison authorities. 

All six are awaiting trial for charges including criminal damage and aggravated burglary. They have not been convicted of any crime. 

Gib, Cink and Zurah are on remand in HMP Bronzefield, Murasi in HMP New Hall, Hoxha in HMP Peterborough and Ahmad in HMP Pentonville. Pentonville is in special measures and was described as “cockroach-infested” in a July BBC report.

Ella Moulsdale, Zurah’s best friend and family member, told Novara Media that Bronzefield has recently reinstated a non-association order against the hunger strikers, calling it “a desperate attempt to isolate them”. Moulsdale said the Palestine Action prisoners have faced “physical violence by guards” which is “always in response to them trying to comfort one another or stand up for another prisoner”. 

One of the six hunger strikers’ key demands is an end to all prison censorship and withholding of letters, phone calls and books. Hoxha was on hunger strike in September due to her mail being allegedly withheld by prison authorities and her removal from her job as an assistant at the prison library. 

Hoxha previously refused food over what she called “retrospective punishment” in HMP Peterborough following the proscription of Palestine Action. She said her conditions in prison had worsened after Palestine Action was banned under UK terror law and that prison staff repeatedly called her a “terrorist”.

Both Hoxha and Murasi were moved from HMP Bronzefield to their current prisons. Murasi – who has family in Gaza – allegedly had her access to books and visits restricted and her privacy violated. According to Cage International, Bronzefield’s security chief Yasmine Cooper threatened to “forcibly remove” a keffiyeh Murasi used as a hijab during prayers. All Murarsi’s keffiyehs were reportedly removed from her cell. 

Ahmad, Hoxha, Murasi and Zurah are part of the so-called Filton 24, group of Palestine Action activists currently held on remand in connection with an action at a factory for Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest arms manufacturer – in Filton, Gloucestershire, in August last year. 

Of the Filton 24, all were denied bail and some have been in prison for over a year awaiting trial. Most will be imprisoned for two years before trial due to the decision to charge them under counterterror powers. This far exceeds the UK’s standard pre-trial custody time limit for the crown court of 182 days.

The hunger strikers’ other demands are that Palestine Action prisoners immediately receive bail, all the relevant documents in their case are released, Palestine Action is de-proscribed and all Elbit sites and subsidiaries in the UK are shut down.

Cink and Gib were remanded in connection with a Palestine Action raid on RAF Brize Norton airbase in June 2025, where activists allegedly sprayed planes with red paint that they said were being used for military operations in Gaza. 

The strike was announced after home secretary Shabana Mahmood ignored a letter from  the campaign group Prisoners for Palestine (PFP) issuing demands on “behalf of the people that are unjustly locked up as a result of taking action to stop the genocide in Palestine”.

Most of the 33 activists are expected to join the strike in coming weeks, in what would be the largest coordinated prisoners’ hunger strike since the 1981 Irish hunger strike led by Bobby Sands.

The Brize Norton raid was used as justification for then-home secretary Yvette Cooper to take the controversial step of proscribing Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2001. Palestine Action is the first non-violent direct action group to be banned under UK terror law with the likes of Isis and Al-Qaeda. It means that being a member of or showing support for the group is illegal and punishable by up to 14 years in prison. 

Since Palestine Action’s proscription, at least 2,100 people have been arrested under terror legislation for protesting the ban – more than during the entire ‘war on terror’. The majority of these people protested by holding up signs reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. They include elderly clergy, military veterans and disabled people. The ban is being challenged with a judicial review in the High Court on 17 November. 

Earlier this week, it was reported that Filton 24 activist Sean Middlebrough absconded after a temporary release allowing him to attend his brother’s wedding. Middlesbrough didn’t return to HMP Wandsworth and is now being sought by police. Middlesbrough had been in prison without trial since November 2024 and told Declassified he was “locked up for 23 hours a day” in a one-man cell which he was forced to share due to overcrowding. He is charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. 

The six prisoners on hunger strike have received messages and actions of solidarity from prisoners around the world. 

Brooklyn activist Jakhi McCray, currently under house arrest and facing federal arson charges, is doing a solidarity fast. In a statement, McCray compared the alleged forced removal of hijabs from Muslim prisoners to “the NYPD’s targeting of and physical violence against Muslim women during protests” and said “I won’t eat anything until the UK prisoners end their strike”.  

Lebanese former militant Georges Abdallah, recently freed after over 40 years in prison for complicity in the murders of an Israeli and an American diplomat, also expressed his solidarity. 

PFP spokesperson Francesca Nadin told Novara Media: “There are now five prisoners on an open-ended hunger strike, demanding justice and to shut Elbit down. The prisoners’ sacrifice is noble and is met with the full support of the people. We have already seen solidarity actions around the world, and this will only increase the pressure on the British state to cede the prisoners’ demands.”

Other Filton 24 activists have reported poor treatment in prison – even before the proscription of Palestine Action. Fatema Zainab Rajwani was allegedly subjected to “unnecessary intrusive medical tests” such as forced urine tests conducted at “50 times the frequency allowed by prison regulations” in Bronzefield, according to a letter from Resistance Kitchen in December 2024.

Ellie Kamio told Novara Media in March that she repeatedly fainted in her HMP Eastwood Park cell due to heatstroke and being kept on lockdown for 23 hours a day. And the mistreatment extended to her mum, too. 

Emma Kamio was arrested and left “traumatised” after being kept in solitary confinement for five days – two days without a duty solicitor and then three in the custody of counterterror police, where she was held in a filthy cell, repeatedly searched and the lights left on all night in an act of “psychological torture”. She was later released without charge. 

Speaking to Novara Media in September, Hoxha said: “I need rehabilitation from prison. It’s not just cruel to prisoners, it’s cruel to the public to believe this experience offers any rehabilitation.”

Sodexo, the private company that runs HMP Bronzefield and Peterborough, has been approached for comment. Novara Media has reached out to HMP New Hall and HMP Pentonville for comment.