Three Palestine Action activists end UK hunger strike
Three detained British activists who spent weeks refusing food have ended their hunger strike, citing a report that a United Kingdom-based subsidiary of a major Israeli weapons company was denied a UK government contract.
The Prisoners for Palestine group said in a statement on Wednesday that hunger strikers Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi and Lewie Chiaramello ended their strike after one of their “key” demands was achieved.
“Our prisoners’ hunger strike will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance; an embarrassment for the British state,” the group said.
The Times reported on Tuesday that Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of the Israeli arms manufacturer of the same name, had failed to win a $2.69bn contract to help train British soldiers.
Citing an unnamed UK Ministry of Defence “insider”, the news outlet said the department instead chose to award the contract to a rival consortium led by Raytheon UK.
“The abrupt cancellation of this deal is a resounding victory for the hunger strikers, who resisted with their incarcerated bodies to shed light on the role of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, in the colonisation and occupation of Palestine,” Prisoners for Palestine said.
For years, Palestinian rights activists have called on countries to divest from Elbit Systems over its role in supplying the Israeli military with weapons used in alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory.
UK prosecutors seek to reinstate ‘terrorism’ charge against Kneecap rapper
Kneecap supporters rally outside the High Court in London, UK, on January 14, 2026
British prosecutors have sought to reinstate a “terrorism” charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap for allegedly displaying a flag of Lebanese group Hezbollah during a gig in London, after a judge threw out the case last year.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) launched a High Court challenge on Wednesday, arguing that a chief magistrate erred in September when he dismissed the case against Liam O’Hanna, also known as Liam Og O hAnnaidh in Irish, over a technical error.
O’Hanna, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with displaying the flag at a November 21, 2024, concert in London, breaching the United Kingdom’s 2000 Terrorism Act. Kneecap previously said the flag was thrown on stage during their performance and that they “do not, and have never” supported Hezbollah.
In written submissions unveiled in court, the CPS “submits that the Learned judge was wrong to find that the proceedings … were not instituted in the correct form”.
Kneecap – known for their politically charged lyrics and support for Palestinian rights – have said the case is an attempt to distract from what they described as British complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The band has called the attempted prosecution of O’Hanna a “British state witch-hunt”.
“Today more Palestinians were murdered by Israel,” Kneecap wrote in a social media post on Wednesday after the court hearing.
“More homes demolished and more children dead due to cold and lack of aid not permitted to enter by Israel. That is the ONLY thing about this whole witch-hunt worth talking about,” the band said, denouncing the legal proceedings as “a waste of public time and public money”
