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Three British activists from the proscribed Palestine Action group are on hunger strike seeking bail and a fair trial, with friends and relatives warning they are close to death but determined to continue until their demands are met.

Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed have refused food for 70 and 63 days respectively as part of a rolling hunger strike that began in November. A third prisoner, Lewie Chiaramello, is also refusing food on alternating days due to type 1 diabetes.

Five of the eight people who took part in the protest have ended their hunger strikes due to health concerns.

They are held in different jails over their alleged involvement in break-ins at the United Kingdom subsidiary of Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol, where equipment was damaged, and at a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, where two military aircraft were sprayed with red paint.

They deny all charges.

The group is demanding:

• Bail and the right to a fair trial, and the reversal of the UK government’s July designation of Palestine Action as a “terrorist organisation”, placing it alongside ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda.
• Closure in the UK of all Elbit sites, which are facilities operated by Israel’s largest defence company, manufacturing military technology used by the Israeli armed forces and other governments.
• An end to what they describe as censorship inside prison, including the withholding of mail, phone calls and books.

All eight will have spent more than a year in custody without trials, exceeding the UK’s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.

What does prolonged hunger do to the body?

In the early stages of starvation, after several days without food, the body begins breaking down muscle to produce energy.

As the fast continues, metabolism slows down. The body loses its ability to regulate temperature, kidney function deteriorates, and the immune system weakens, reducing the body’s ability to heal from injury.

Once the body’s reserves are depleted, it can no longer prioritise nutrients for vital organs. The heart and lungs become less efficient, muscles shrink and profound weakness sets in.

Eventually, as protein stores are depleted, and the body begins to break down its own tissues. At this stage, death may be imminent.

Scientific research on prolonged starvation is limited due to ethical reasons; however, estimates suggest that a healthy, well-nourished adult could survive without food for between 45 and 61 days, which means the three activists have now reached, or exceeded, that threshold, placing them in extreme, life-threatening danger.

International concern

Hunger strikes have long been used as an extreme, non-violent form of protest, relying on moral pressure to compel those in power to act. Historical records trace the practice to ancient India and Ireland, where people would fast at the doorstep of someone who had wronged them as a form of public shaming.

In modern times, hunger strikes remain powerful political statements, often drawing international attention to cases of imprisonment, injustice or repression, even at the cost of the striker’s life. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners incarcerated without any charges by Israel have resorted to hunger strikes to bring attention to their cases.

United Nations experts said hunger strikes are “often a measure of last resort by people who believe their rights to protest and effective remedy have been exhausted”. They added that the state’s duty of care towards hunger strikers is heightened, not diminished, and that authorities must ensure timely access to emergency and hospital care, refrain from pressure or retaliation, and respect medical ethics.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris has announced the government’s return to Khartoum, after nearly three years of operating from its wartime capital of Port Sudan.

In the early days of the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the army-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly overrun by rival troops.

The government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum since the army recaptured the city last March.

“Today, we return, and the Government of Hope returns to the national capital,” Idris told reporters on Sunday in Khartoum, which has been ravaged by the war between SAF and RSF.

“We promise you better services, better healthcare and the reconstruction of hospitals, the development of educational services … and to improve electricity, water and sanitation services,” he said.

For close to two years, the Sudanese capital – comprised of the three cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North (Bahri) – was an active battlefield.

Entire neighbourhoods were besieged, rival fighters shot artillery across the Nile River, and millions of people were displaced from the city.

Between March and October, 1.2 million people returned to Khartoum, according to the United Nations.

Many found a city with barely functioning services, their homes destroyed and neighbourhoods pockmarked by makeshift cemeteries authorities are now exhuming.

The war is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people in the capital alone, but the complete toll is unknown, as many families have been forced to bury their dead in makeshift graves.

According to the UN, the rehabilitation of the capital’s essential infrastructure would cost some $350m.

In recent months, the government has held some cabinet meetings in Khartoum and launched reconstruction efforts.

The city has witnessed relative calm, though the RSF has carried out drone strikes, particularly on infrastructure.

Army strikes RSF targets

Battles rage elsewhere across the vast country.

South of Khartoum, the RSF has pushed through the Kordofan region, after dislodging the army from its last stronghold in Darfur last year.

Sudan’s army on Friday said that it inflicted heavy losses on the RSF during a series of air and ground operations carried out over the past week in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

In a statement, the military said its forces conducted strikes against RSF positions, destroying about 240 combat vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.

It added that ground forces had succeeded in pushing RSF fighters out of wide areas in both Darfur and Kordofan, and that operations were ongoing to pursue remaining elements.

The RSF did not immediately comment on the army’s statement, and the information shared by the army could not be independently verified.

The conflict has left 11 million people displaced internally and across borders, and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

Recently, the UN described el-Fasher in North Darfur as a “crime scene” after gaining access to the largely deserted city for the first time since its takeover, marked by mass atrocities by the RSF in October.

International aid staff visited el-Fasher following weeks of negotiations, finding few people remaining in what was once a densely populated city with a large displaced population.

More than 100,000 residents fled el-Fasher for their lives after the RSF seized control on October 26 following an 18-month siege, with survivors reporting ethnically motivated mass killings and widespread detentions.