Since early November 2025, a dramatic and deeply contentious hunger strike has been unfolding behind the walls of five British prisons. Eight remand prisoners, all associated with the activist group Palestine Action, have refused food for periods ranging from several days to over a month, with some now approaching a perilous threshold. Their protest, which supporters say is the largest of its kind in the UK since the 1981 Irish republican strikes led by Bobby Sands, is aimed at drawing attention to their prolonged pre-trial detention and the broader issue of the UK’s role in arming Israel during the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
According to Novara Media, the hunger strikers are among 32 individuals awaiting trial for alleged break-ins at military and weapons facilities, including the damaging of two military aircraft at RAF Brize Norton and an incursion at an Israeli-owned weapons factory near Bristol. None have yet been convicted, but some are not due in court until January 2027, raising concerns that their extended detention amounts to punishment before trial. One of the strikers, Lewie Chiaramello, is diabetic and fasting on alternate days—an act supporters warn could be life-threatening. At least five of the strikers have been hospitalized, and the health of all is said to be deteriorating rapidly.
Their demands are sweeping: immediate release on bail, closure of the UK branch of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, reversal of the ban on Palestine Action, an end to censorship of their communications, and a fair trial. The hunger strike, organizers claim, is a desperate bid to shine a light on what they see as grave injustices—both within the prison system and in the UK’s foreign policy.
Despite the gravity of the situation, coverage of the hunger strike has been strikingly muted in much of the British media. Novara Media notes that while BBC News Online has reported extensively on hunger strikes in Iran, Tunisia, and Italy, it has not published a single article on the Palestine Action prisoners until very recently. This silence has not gone unnoticed. Protests have erupted outside BBC offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, and Edinburgh, with demonstrators accusing the national broadcaster of facilitating “state corruption, cruelty and injustice” by keeping the public in the dark.
“The BBC once again shows its willingness to facilitate state corruption, cruelty and injustice by, in the case of the hunger strike, ignoring it completely,” a spokesperson from Prisoners for Palestine told Novara Media. “Their silence about this daring political action keeps the public in the dark about what would otherwise rightly be a huge scandal.”
The blackout extends beyond the BBC. The Independent, which covered a previous hunger strike by one of the same prisoners in August, has not reported on the current protest. The Telegraph ran a story in October when the prisoners first announced their intentions to refuse food, but has since remained silent. This lack of coverage has fueled anger among supporters, who argue that the establishment media’s silence is complicit in the ongoing crisis.
Prominent political figures have stepped into the breach. Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali visited HMP Bronzefield and described inmate Jon Cink as “almost skeletal.” Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Zarah Sultana have both visited the hunger strikers, while US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges have spoken out on their behalf. During a visit to Bronzefield, Corbyn questioned the media’s reluctance to report on the case, asking, “What has happened to the principle of fearless investigative reporting by the British media? Why can’t they report this case? Why can’t they make a comment about the unusual nature of being held all this time on remand with apparently little prospect that they will be released ahead of the trial date?”
On December 9, a lively demonstration took place outside the surgery of Labour Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in Tottenham. Protesters carried placards demanding the release of the hunger strikers and an end to British arms sales to Israel. Rebeckah Diski, from Haringey for a Free Palestine, relayed a message from prisoner John Cink: “My body is getting weaker every day. We can build a movement from the ground up of people committed to liberation. My fellow prisoners check on me. We all yearn for freedom. Imprisonment also faces the poor and the homeless. Free Palestine. Shut Elbit down.”
Anna Athow, a retired surgeon and British Medical Association member, told the crowd, “We totally support the struggle of the hunger strikers to expose the genocide in Palestine. The Palestinians are leading the struggle for all of us. They have inspired youth throughout the world and the workers of the Western countries must come to their aid.” She called for a general strike in Britain in solidarity with Palestine and denounced what she described as the government’s increasingly repressive policies.
Jyoti Ferdandes, a farmer who employed one of the jailed hunger strikers, Amu Gib, described him as “very thin but very lucid and speaking very articulately regarding Palestine. Amu is very concerned about the other hunger strikers. John has been losing weight rapidly and fainting, Tessa is very vulnerable but committed to standing up for the Palestinian people.”
The prisoners’ legal team has now escalated the matter, sending a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Lammy on December 9 warning of the “real and increasingly likely potential” that their clients will die in prison. “Each of our clients’ health is deteriorating rapidly,” the letter states. “Five of our clients have already been hospitalised during their strike. We, as their legal team, are under no illusion that their commitment to their cause, and their will to ensure that their demands are met, is iron-clad.” The lawyers are calling for an urgent meeting with ministers, and have indicated they may pursue legal action over alleged human rights breaches.
In Parliament, MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have raised the issue with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, expressing frustration at the lack of ministerial response. “We’ve not received any response,” McDonnell told the House. Hoyle called it “totally unacceptable” that ministers had not replied to MPs’ requests for information, adding, “The ministerial teams need to get their act together.”
For its part, the Ministry of Justice insists that Deputy Prime Minister Lammy is being kept informed and that prisoners’ wellbeing is continuously assessed. “We continually assess prisoners’ wellbeing and will always take the appropriate action, including taking prisoners to hospital if they are assessed as needing treatment by a medical professional,” an MoJ spokesperson told the BBC.
Meanwhile, the High Court is expected to rule within weeks on the lawfulness of the ban on Palestine Action, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the group and its supporters. The hunger strikers, their families, and a growing chorus of advocates continue to press for immediate action, warning that unless their demands are addressed, the consequences could be fatal.
As the days tick by and the prisoners’ health worsens, the silence from key institutions—political and media alike—has become its own flashpoint. For many, the hunger strike is not just a protest about the treatment of a handful of prisoners, but a test of the nation’s commitment to justice, transparency, and the right to dissent.
