Your Party MP Zarah Sultana rushed in the early hours of the morning of Wednesday, 17 December, to HMP Bronzefield. It was because one of the Filton 24 hunger strike prisoners was at serious risk of death – and the prison was refusing to call an ambulance.
Qesser Zuhrah: at serious risk
Qesser Zuhrah is now on the 46th day of her hunger strike. As the Guardian reported:
Palestine Action-affiliated hunger strikers are likely to die without David Lammy’s intervention, lawyers representing the prisoners have said as they criticised the justice secretary for refusing to meet them.
Solicitors wrote to Lammy last Wednesday to request an urgent meeting before their clients’ health deteriorates “beyond any possible recovery”. But a subsequent letter sent on Tuesday said that his reply, received on Monday “does not directly address our request”.
Two of those refusing food are on day 45 of their protest – one day less than Martin Hurson did before becoming the sixth of 10 IRA hunger strikers to die in 1982 – and another is on day 44.
The latest letter says that Qesser Zuhrah, who has been refusing food since 2 November, experienced her legs shaking uncontrollably a few nights ago, collapsed on to the floor for hours and went in and out of consciousness.
Seemingly, it seems Qesser’s situation has severely deteriorated. So, Sultana has dramatically intervened.
Sultana makes late-night dash to the hunger strike prisoner
She understands that the prison medical team conducted an ECG on Qesser. They claimed everything was fine – which the Your Party MP believes is not the case. The prison has also denied an ambulance to take her to hospital. So, Sultana said she will sit outside until the prison allows an ambulance in. Reception at the prison appeared to cut her off:
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As of 3:45am on 17 December, the prison had not allowed Sultana in – nor had it called an ambulance. She had been streaming live onto both TikTok and Insta – and this prompted multiple members of the public to say they were going to join her. The Canary is on its way as well.
Human rights groups, which have already slammed the Starmer regime’s ‘lawfare’ war on anti-genocide protest and particularly the political imprisonment of the ‘Filton 24’ group of activists of which the hunger-strike prisoners are members. Amnesty International has now also warned Starmer that his intransigence risks killing people who do not deserve to be detained under the anti-terrorism laws that the government is using against them. Amnesty’s campaigns director Kerry Moscogiuri said:
This is crisis point for these activists – prosecutors must drop the allegations of a ‘terrorism connection’ in these cases and end any excessively lengthy pre-trial detention. Those on hunger strike are victims of the UK’s excessively broad terrorism laws which have been misused to escalate ordinary criminal prosecutions of direct-action protesters into terrorism cases.
Justice secretary David Lammy has repeatedly lied – saying he was not aware of the hunger strike and the prisoners’ situation. As Labour MP John McDonnell told the Canary, he was also refused to meet with the hunger strikers’ families, their lawyers, or the group of MPs urging him to take action:
EXCLUSIVE: Of course @johnmcdonnellMP is right – the hunger strikers are innocent yet David Lammy refuses to act. For shame. @Prisoners4Pal pic.twitter.com/jytBbtS3nI
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) December 16, 2025
So, Zarah Sultana has taken matters into her own hands – and the Canary will be monitoring the situation as Qesser fights for her life, thanks to the Labour government’s authoritarian cruelty on behalf of the state of Israel.
Featured image via the Canary
By Steve Topple
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