The last Palestine Action-affiliated prisoner on hunger strike has ended his protest, two days after he started refusing water.
Umer Khalid, 22, who is being held at Wormwood Scrubs in west London, had escalated his action on Friday by going on thirst strike, raising fears that he could die within days.
At a Prisoners for Palestine press conference on Tuesday, Saeed Taji Farouky, a British-Palestinian film-maker and educator, said Khalid ended his protest on Sunday after being taken to intensive care with organ failure.
“He’s agreed to the very slow, dangerous process of refeeding and he’s drinking again,” Farouky said. “He was successful in his hunger strike. Most of his demands were accepted.”
Prisoners for Palestine said Khalid had been granted a meeting with the prison governor, and as a result had received his previously withheld post and clothes, while restrictions on his prison visits, in place since he was imprisoned awaiting trial in July 2025, were also lifted.
Farouky claimed Khalid had been grossly mistreated in prison, including having communications withheld, not being allowed to express his religion and not receiving the medical care he required.
In a statement, Khalid, who is back in prison, said: “I am too strong, too loud, too powerful – and we as a collective are the same. I ask Allah to take my life when He is pleased with me, and not before. What has become clear is that there is no concern for our lives inside these cells. Until then, we keep resisting.”
Khalid, who has a genetic condition called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, began refusing food in November last year as part of a coordinated action by eight Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners.
He paused after 12 days due to ill health, but restarted on 10 January before escalating his action by also refusing water from 23 January.
Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy causes weakness and wasting in muscles around joints in the body.
The Labour MP John McDonnell, who has previously spoken up for the prisoners in parliament, told Tuesday’s press conference: “I would like the secretary of state for justice, David Lammy, now to have a full inquiry into how these prisoners are being treated because I do believe most people will find it unacceptable that they’re on remand for so long and the way that they’ve been treated within prison itself. And that includes, I have to say, access to health facilities when some of them have been, I believe, in a dangerous plight.”
The eight prisoners are all charged with offences relating to alleged break-ins or criminal damage carried out on behalf of Palestine Action. They will all have spent more than a year in jail before going to trial.
The final three apart from Khalid ended their protest on 14 January after the government decided not to award a £2bn contract to the UK subsidiary of the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.
Their original main demands had been the right to a fair trial, the deproscription of Palestine Action, the closure of Elbit’s UK sites, an end to censorship of their communications and immediate bail.
Prisoners for Palestine said they should all be granted compassionate bail as they “have not been recovering well”.
A government spokesperson said: “Prisoners are being managed in line with longstanding policy. This includes regular checks by medical professionals, heart monitoring and blood tests, and support to help them eat and drink again. If deemed appropriate by healthcare teams, prisoners will be taken to hospital.
“These prisoners face serious charges, and no government could agree to their demands, many of which relate to ongoing legal proceedings, including immediate bail, which is a matter for independent judges.”
