ON A COLD January afternoon in Pontypridd, 10 pro-Palestine activists gathered outside the Labour constituency office of Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones MP and Mick Antoniw MS to demand urgent government intervention in what campaigners describe as an urgent humanitarian and legal crisis unfolding inside UK prisons.
Between 2024 – 2025 24 Activists, known collectively as the Filton 24, are currently being held on remand, denied bail, and awaiting trials scheduled years into the future. Four of whom are now risking their lives on hunger strike.
Remand, in UK law, is not a sentence. It is meant to be temporary custody to ensure attendance at court. Yet for these activists, campaigners say, remand has become a slow punishment, stretching far beyond the typical six-month pre-trial period.
On Saturday (January 3), protesters hung banners reading “Support the Hunger Strikers, Don’t Let Them Die” and “UK WEAPONS KILL”, carried placards, distributed leaflets and sang songs in solidarity with the hunger strikers. The peaceful demonstration began outside the constituency office before moving through Pontypridd town centre, where protesters chanted “Free the Filton 24” before returning to the office to conclude the protest.
Other chants directly highlighted the government’s responsibility:
- “Alex, Alex, what do you say? Don’t let the prisoners die today!”
- “Justice Minister, you can’t hide! Don’t let the hunger strikers die!”
The chants were urgent. They carried the weight of lives hanging in the balance.
Eight pro-Palestine activists associated with the direct-action network Palestine Action began refusing food on November 2, 2025, marking the anniversary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. Their protest is directed at both their prolonged pre-trial detention and the conditions they face inside prison.
Supporters describe the coordinated prison hunger strike has been described by supporters as the most significant in the UK since the 1981 Irish hunger strike, when ten people, including Bobby Sands MP, died while protesting internment and prison conditions
Of the eight original hunger strikers, four activists have paused or ended their hunger strikes due to deteriorating health:
- Qesser Zuhrah (20) – Ended hunger strike after being hospitalized on the 48 day. Trial date pending confirmation.
- Amu Gib (30) – Ended hunger strike after being hospitalized on the 49 day. Trial date pending confirmation.
- Jon Cink (age not reported) – Ended hunger strike after being hospitalized on the 41 day. Trial date pending confirmation.
- Umer Khalid (22) – Ended hunger strike after 13 days. Trial date pending confirmation.
Four remain on hunger strike:
- Heba Muraisi (31) – on hunger strike for over 62 days and held at HMP New Hall in Wakefield; she is reported to be extremely weak and struggling to speak. Trial set for June 2026.
- Teuta Hoxha (29) – on hunger strike for over 56 days at HMP Peterborough; has reported heart palpitations and fatigue. Trial date pending confirmation.
- Kamran Ahmed (28) – on hunger strike for over 52 days at HMP Pentonville; hospitalised multiple times, including most recently on January 2, 2026. Trial set for January 18, 2027.
- Lewie Chiaramello – on hunger strike for over 30 alternate days due to type 1 diabetes, held at HMP Bristol. Trial set for January 18, 2027
The activists deny all charges against them, which include allegations of burglary, criminal damage and conspiracy in relation to direct-action protests at an Elbit Systems site in Filton, Bristol, and an RAF Brize Norton base set between 2024 and 2025.
Campaigners, their families and legal representatives raise serious concerns about daily life for the hunger strikers in custody, describing conditions that go beyond administrative detention:
- Medical neglect, including delayed responses to medical emergencies and repeated hospitalisations without sustained follow-up care.
- Isolation and frequent transfers, deliberately moving prisoners far from family and legal support networks.
- Censorship of communications, including restrictions on letters, phone calls, and access to legal correspondence.
- Loss of basic privileges, including access to books, newspapers, prison jobs, education, and association with other prisoners.
- Reduced visitation, placing further strain on families and support networks.
Medical experts warn that prolonged starvation can lead to irreversible organ damage or death, and that prison healthcare systems are ill-equipped to manage long-term hunger strikes without meaningful intervention.
Despite the gravity of the situation, the UK government has refused to meet the hunger strikers or their legal representatives.
An Early Day Motion (EDM 2386) was tabled in Parliament on December 1, 2025, calling on the Secretary of State for Justice to intervene urgently to protect the treatment and human rights of the hunger strikers. However, the motion has since only been supported by about 62 out of 650 MPs as of the January 3, 2025. Only 5 out of 32 Welsh Representatives have supported this motion.
Supporters include:
- Welsh Labour MP Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr)
- Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli)
- Plaid Cymru MP Ann Davies (Caerfyrddin)
- Plaid Cymru MP Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn)
- Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
MP Alex Davies-Jones has not signed the motion.
Campaigners stress that the Justice Secretary has responsibility for prison policy and remand conditions which is why the motion specifically calls on him to engage with the strikers’ legal representatives, address their demands and “act to prevent catastrophe.”
To date, there has been no official response from the Senedd.
As both MP for Pontypridd and Minister for Victims, Alex Davies-Jones has spoken publicly about human rights, justice, and the rule of law. However, protesters argue that these principles ring hollow when pro-Palestinian activists are held for years without trial, denied bail, and left to starve in prison cells.
During the demonstration, a speaker described Davies-Jones as a politician who has “gone out of her way to endorse the criminalisation of peaceful protesters.” This remark referenced a recent case in which two protesters were arrested following a complaint by the MP, only to later win on appeal, raising concerns among activists about disproportionate policing of dissent
In a statement shared with Al Jazeera on December 29, Heba Muraisi said: “I’ve been force-fed repression and I’m stuffed with rage and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing now.
“I am bringing acute awareness to the unjust application of UK laws by our Government and I’m glad that people can now see this after a year of imprisonment and human rights violations. Keep going, keep fighting.”
In a statement published on the Prisoners for Palestine website, Teuta Hoxha said: “This is a witch hunt, not a fair fight, and that behind the arrests of dissenting voices under counterterrorism powers, holding us on remand without trial for nearly two years and targeting protesters who condemn Palestinian suffering, is the palpably desperate attempt to force us all under the imperial boot of submission.”
Protesters today call on Alex Davies Jones MP and the UK government to heed the core demands articulated by the strikers:
- Immediate bail for those held on remand
- A fair trial with full disclosure of relevant documents
- End censorship of their communications in prison
- “De-proscribing” Palestine Action
- Shut down Elbit Systems, the UK’s largest arms manufacturer supplying Israel
- (Recently) For Heba to be returned to HMP Bronzefield to be closer to her support network and family in London
History will remember who spoke and who stayed silent while people starved behind locked doors.
Outside a constituency office in Pontypridd, Outside the MP’s office, the protesters stood in the cold, holding photographs of bodies growing lighter behind prison walls.
That question was asked aloud.
And it is still unanswered.
