22-year-old political prisoner Umer Khalid has ended his latest hunger- and thirst-strike after Wormwood Scrubs prison governor Amy Frost agreed to meet to discuss his prison conditions. After the meeting, Khalid received previously withheld mail and clothes, while punitive restrictions on visits, in place since July 2025, were also lifted.

Khalid had been rushed to a hospital intensive care unit with multiple organ failure, but was quickly discharged back to prison. His family were not told that he had been admitted to the hospital and have been denied access to his medical reports.

Hunger striker speaks out

On Saturday evening, at least 86 people were arrested for protesting at the prison where Khalid is held without trial for allegedly spray painting airplanes at RAF base Brize Norton. Israeli Air refuelling planes used Brize Norton in transit to Gaza during two apparent war crimes in October 2024. The aircraft spray painted belonged to a private aviation company contracted to provide spy flights for the UK military and were surveilling Gaza during Israel’s murder of UK aid workers.

Khalid suffers from Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disorder. As a consequence of this and his prison protest, he is now suffering from renal failure, liver failure, low blood pressure and high creatine kinase levels. All of these are signs of imminent cardiac arrest. The strike just ended was his second hunger-strike. The first, twelve days long, made Khalid seriously unwell and unable to walk. The prison mismanaged his refeeding by giving him protein shakes and biscuits, dangerously unsuitable.

A spokesperson for the Prisoners for Palestine group said:

Umer absolutely must have compassionate bail in order to heal, all the hunger strikers should. The prison is simply not equipped to care for someone with Umer’s condition. Umer could have died in the intensive care unit on Sunday morning without his family ever knowing. The demands of his hunger strike and thirst strike, as the demands of the whole campaign have been, were morally and legally reasonable; he wanted an end to his censorship, bail, the right to a fair trial, an end to the unfounded terror link in Palestine Action protest cases, a public inquiry into the Gaza genocide and the UK’s complicity, and transparency around the potential use of RAF spy flights during the murder of 3 British aid workers in Gaza.

We are extremely proud of Umer and all the hunger strikers. They have achieved so much: the £2 billion contact between Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems, whose entire business model is built on the destruction of Palestinian life, and the Ministry of Defense has been dropped; prisoners including Umer have received previously censored mail; and after months of asking the prison governor for a meeting, Amy Frost has finally met with Umer. But at what cost? The hunger strikers were at death’s door, in disbelief that the British state is willing to let its own citizens die in order to stay allied in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. They will never be the same again.

In a telephoned statement, Khalid himself said:

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As you all know, on day 14 of my hunger strike I began my water strike. On the morning of day 16, after the amazing show of solidarity, strength and bravery the night before by all of you on the outside, the prison took me to the hospital. At the hospital, in the afternoon I was given a choice between treatment and likely death within the next 24 hours due to kidney failure, acute liver failure, and potential cardiac arrest.

At this moment, for two reasons I decided on day 17 to end both my water strike and my hunger strike. The first is that I am too strong, too loud, too powerful, and we as a collective are also too strong, too powerful, and there is so much we can do to affect change, and I ask Allah to take my life when He is pleased with me and not before, and this clearly was not my time.

And the second reason is that they have shown without a doubt that they have no concern for our lives and they do not care if we die in these cells, if David Lammy wishes to see me dead, if Keir Starmer wishes to see me dead, they can come and do it themselves.

Until then we keep fighting, we keep resisting, and what I’ve seen over this past weekend from myself and from all of you, is that the muqawamah will always, always live on no matter what happens to any of us.

Assalamu alaykum.

Long road ahead

The recovery of some other hunger strikers is not going well. Kamran Ahmed was on hunger strike for 67 days. He has been hospitalised multiple times with an abnormal heartbeat and doctors said he is now showing signs of heart failure. Ahmed’s sister, health worker Shahmina Alam, said:

The hunger and thirst strikers have shown that the prison healthcare system is not fit for purpose. There are systemic failures to provide care which is dignified, timely or even life-saving. The admission of prisoners to hospital has shown these prisoners are not treated as patients or even humans. They are dehumanised, handcuffed in their sleep and in the shower, and are given no privacy, confidentiality, or respect.

This has left prisoners feeling uncomfortable, and even deeply afraid of receiving care in hospital. The prisoners have witnessed failures in healthcare which has led to deaths, and there is no doubt the insufficient action and neglect of the prison system has contributed to the decline of our loved ones. All humans deserve dignified and timely care, prisoners are no different.

Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, pointed out that the UK public is on the side of resistance, not the Starmer government’s collaboration in Israel’s genocide:

Everyone has the right to protest, or should have. Those rights are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. We know the ECHR is under attack from the Right, but this government still says it supports it.

But there is one thing to say you support it, but it is quite another to support it in practice. We know that this government has supported the genocide in Gaza. Keir Starmer said very early on that Israel did have the right to withhold food and water.

The British government has also gone much further that other European governments that are also staunch supporters of Israel.  It has bombed Yemen, partly in an effort to destroy those who oppose Israel’s genocide. It has provided intelligence to Israel that helps it identify targets in Gaza.

But the public does not agree. In poll after poll, they public supports Gaza, opposes Israel’s actions, and opposes the British government support for those actions. The government’s response to this criticism and the protests that inevitably follow has been a police one. They cannot win the argument, so they demonise and criminalise their opponents. They have treated protestors as terrorists.

That is why we should all support those who have been on hunger or other strikes. How they have been treated is a moral outrage. They are fighting for all our rights to protest. And they are fighting to stop the genocide in Gaza. They deserve the support of every decent human being.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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