Two hunger strikers for Palestine, Kamran Ahmed and Amu Gib, have been hospitalised after hitting a “critical point” with their health after refusing to eat for 40 days
Hunger striker for Palestine, Kamran Ahmed, 28, has been hospitalised after his health reached a critical point following 42 days without food.
Ahmed had been suffering from intense chest pains and tremors, which he likened to being tasered, as well as slurred speech before he was hospitalised in an emergency for the second time during his hunger strike.
Just two days earlier, fellow hunger striker Amu Gib, 30, was also hospitalised after 50 days without food, after their health deteriorated rapidly, requiring them to use a wheelchair. Gib had been experiencing brain fog and double vision.
Another hunger striker, Qesser Zuhrah, who began her strike at the same time as Gib, is also in hospital. There have now been eight hospitalisations during the collective open-ended hunger strike that began on Balfour day, 2nd November 2025.
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Prisoners for Palestine said the hunger strikers will die unless there is urgent intervention by the government. “It is completely unacceptable and deliberately negligent to pretend the hunger strike is not happening, or to dismiss the prisoners’ demands,” they said in a statement. “They are in the custody of the state, and any harm that comes to them is a deliberate outcome of the government’s negligence and the politicisation of their detention.
“The prisoners have been completely reasonable throughout, and are asking for the government to meet with their representatives to urgently resolve the situation. Ministry of Justice policy states the relevant people must seek to address and resolve all hunger strikes. That has not happened in this case,” the statement continued.
“Nor the governor of the prisons, or ministers, have listened to the hunger strikers and discussed their demands, some of which directly relate to their prison conditions. Conditions which worsened significantly post proscription, despite being remanded before the ban on Palestine Action.
“It is the government’s actions which has got the prisoners into this serious situation, they must now act to save their lives,” the statement concluded.
Six prisoners – Zuhrah, Gib, Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Lewie Chiaramello – are currently refusing food in British jails. With some now at day 48, the strike is the longest the UK has seen since the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, where Bobby Sands after 66 days without political intervention. A total of 10 men died in the 1981 hunger strikes.
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These prisoners say the strike is an act of reclaiming a body that has been put in the “custody of the state,” a final way to fulfil what Amu Gib calls a “duty to fight the freedom from oppression”. “How can we sit in prison, waiting until the noose tightens around our neck for opposing genocide?” he has said.
The prisoners, known as the Filton 24 and Brize Norton 4, are awaiting trial for direct action protests against Elbit Systems. Many face staggering delays in the justice system; Amu Gib, for instance, is not expected to stand trial until 2027.
The prisoners’ demands include immediate bail, fair trials, and the closure of Elbit Systems’ UK sites. Their legal team, Imran Khan and Partners, has warned Foreign Secretary David Lammy that “young British citizens will die in prison, having never even been convicted of an offence.”
As stars like The Pogues and Kneecap join the call for intervention, the Ministry of Justice maintains that the protest is “unacceptable” and that prisoner health is being managed according to policy. However, with each passing hour, the “point of no return” draws closer.
The Mirror has reached out to David Lammy, Wes Streeting, and Keir Starmer for comment, but no response was received at the time of publication.
