Jailed Palestine Action activist ends 60-day hunger strike as health fails

Prisoners For Palestine says activist Teuta Hoxha needs to be hospitalised but has been denied medical treatment by prison authorities.

Palestine Action activist Teuta Hoxha has paused her hunger strike in the United Kingdom after more than two months without food while demanding immediate bail and the right to a fair trial.

The group Prisoners For Palestine wrote on Instagram on Monday that Hoxha is in serious condition and needs to be hospitalised. It alleged the 29-year old has been denied proper treatment by prison authorities.

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Hoxha “needs urgent medical care in hospital to prevent refeeding syndrome. The prison is refusing [her] medical treatment, which is required to prevent death in extreme cases of starvation”.

Refeeding syndrome, a potentially fatal condition, happens when nutrition is restarted in a starving person too quickly. There was no immediate comment from prison or government officials.

For the past 63 days, Palestine Action members have been on hunger strikes in prisons around the UK after being jailed over alleged involvement in break-ins at the UK subsidiary of Elbit Systems in Filton near Bristol in 2024.

Elbit Systems is an Israeli defence company with factories and offices across Britain.

Some members of Palestine Action are also being held for an alleged break-in at a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, where two military aircraft were sprayed with red paint. The prisoners deny the charges against them, which include burglary and violent disorder.

After Hoxha has paused her protest, only three of eight Palestine Action hunger strikers continue to refuse food as they demand their release.

‘Apartheid regime’

In July, the British government voted in favour of proscribing Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation – putting it into the same category as armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

More than 1,600 people have been arrested in connection with support for Palestine Action after near-weekly protests for the ban to be revoked. The proscription is being challenged in court.

The protest group, launched in 2020, has described itself as a movement “committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.

Those still on hunger strike include Heba Muraisi, 31, and Kamran Ahmed, 28. Lewie Chiaramello, 22, is also refusing food every other day because he’s diabetic.

The strikers have made five demands: immediate bail, the right to a fair trial, an end to censorship of their communications, “de-proscribing” Palestine Action and closing Elbit Systems factories in the UK.

People protest at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Manchester, England [File: Gary Roberts/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]