Children play at Gaza’s Nuseirat camp amid fragile ceasefire


_{People walk amid shelters at the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip}

Meanwhile

Israeli army carries out large-scale demolition operation in Khan Younis

The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israel’s military carried out a large-scale demolition operation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, using explosives to demolish several residential buildings.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations in Gaza have transformed entire neighbourhoods into rubble-strewn wastelands.

Additionally, satellite imagery revealed that Israeli forces in Gaza have continued to demolish civilian buildings during the ceasefire in areas under their control, in breach of the truce deal.

Netanyahu should convince Trump to let Israel resume attacks: Smotrich

The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, says his country should be allowed to end Hamas’s existence in Gaza, according to Israeli media. Smotrich called on Netanyahu to convince US President Trump on the issue during his meeting with him next week.

The finance minister made the remarks before his hard-right Religious Zionist Party’s weekly meeting in the Knesset.

Main events on December 22nd

• The Israeli army carried out a large-scale demolition operation in the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza.
• Earlier, the army killed two Palestinians in Gaza City, in another violation of the fragile ceasefire.
• Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he would raise the issue of what he calls Iran’s aggressive actions during his upcoming meeting with US President Trump. Behind the scenes, it’s reported that he will try to convince Trump to ramp up pressure on Iran, and even to let Israel mount another offensive against the country.
• Israel also launched attacks near the outskirts of Sidon, Lebanon, killing at least three people. The city of Sidon is only about 50km (30 miles) from the capital, Beirut.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he expects the second phase of the Gaza truce to start in early 2026.

Bit of main stream news leakage:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-ceasefire-plan-stalled-9.7023068

EXPLAINED: Pakistan’s Role in Gaza & the ICC’s Case Against Israel

Junaid S Ahmad talks Pakistan nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, their relationship to Israel, and the potential for the ICC to arrest Netanyahu.

Jeffrey Epstein's Origin Story Goes Back To Iran Contra

"We're HUMAN, Not Superhuman!" – The Violence of Romanticising Palestinian Resilience

Hala Hanina is joined in the Palestine Deep Dive studio by Dr Bahzad Ziyad, a Palestinian medical doctor and mental health specialist who survived two years of Israel's genocide on Gaza.

This episode of Falasteeniya exposes the romanticisation of Palestinian resilience as yet another form of dehumanisation while reclaiming Palestinian humanity in its full, ordinary complexity.

Dr Bahzad has previously lived in the United Kingdom while studying for a masters degree in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at King's College London, before choosing to return home to Gaza to serve his people as a mental health doctor at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Hala Hanina is a social and political activist from Gaza. She is currently completing a PhD in politics and sociology, focusing on Palestinian women at the intersection of colonial and patriarchal violence.

British police detain Greta Thunberg at pro-Palestinian protest in London


_{Greta Thunberg is arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in London on December 23}

British police have arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and two other people at a pro-Palestine protest in central London, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries.

The group said Thunberg was arrested on Tuesday at the Prisoners for Palestine protest held in the heart of London’s Square Mile financial district outside the offices of Aspen Insurance, which provides coverage for Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems.

Two others, a man and a woman, were also arrested at the protest although they had “glued themselves nearby”, according to the City of London Police, which described damage with “hammers and red paint” to “a building on Fenchurch Street”, where the offices of Aspen Insurance are located.

Defend Our Juries confirmed the damage, saying in a news release that two activists “covered the front of the building with symbolic blood-red paint, using re-purposed fire extinguishers” before attaching themselves to the front of the building in the aim of “drawing attention to Aspen’s complicity in Genocide, disrupting their business, and closing down the building”.

The group said Aspen Insurance, a global insurer and reinsurer, was targeted because of its affiliation with Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, which is Israel’s largest arms producer. It describes its drones as “the backbone” of the Israeli military.

Two Palestine Action hunger strikers in UK prisons admitted to hospital


_{Palestine Action hunger striker Amu Gib, 30, has been hospitalised after 50 days of refusing food. They are on remand in prison over charges relating to allegedly breaking into a UK Air Force base}

Two Palestine Action-affiliated remand prisoners on hunger strike have been taken to hospital, according to a family member and a friend, adding to fears that the young Britons refusing food in protest could die at any moment.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kamran Ahmed, who is being held at Pentonville prison in London, was hospitalised on Saturday, his sister, Shahmina Alam, told Al Jazeera.

Amu Gib, 30, who has not eaten food for 50 days at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, was taken to hospital on Friday, said the Prisoners for Palestine group and friend Nida Jafri, who is in regular contact with them. Gib uses the pronoun they.

Ahmed and Gib are among six detainees protesting across five prisons over their alleged involvement in break-ins at the United Kingdom’s subsidiary of the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire.

They deny the charges against them, such as burglary and violent disorder.

“It’s day 42 [of Ahmed’s hunger strike], and at this point, there’s significant risk of organ damage,” said his sister, Alam. “We know that he’s rapidly been losing weight in the last few days, losing up to half a kilogram [1.1lbs] a day.”

Ahmed’s last recorded weight was 60kg (132lbs).

‘Critical stage’

The hunger strikers’ demands include immediate bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action, which accuses the UK government of complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. The UK government banned Palestine Action in July, branding it a “terror” group, a label that applies to groups such as ISIL (ISIS).

The protesters have called for an end to alleged censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books. They are also urging that all Elbit sites be closed.

The six are expected to be held for more than a year until their trial dates, well beyond the UK’s six-month pre-trial detention limit.

Qesser Zuhrah, a 20-year-old who has refused food for 50 days, is also in hospital, having lost 13 percent of her body weight, according to her lawyers. The other protesters are Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Lewie Chiaramello, who is diabetic and refuses food every other day.

Palestine Action hunger strikers launch legal action against UK government

Lawyers of imprisoned hunger-striking activists linked to the protest group Palestine Action have put the British government on notice as the justice secretary refuses to meet them.

Imran Khan & Partners, which represents the collective, wrote a pre-claim letter to the government on Monday, warning that they would seek a High Court case should officials fail to respond by Tuesday afternoon.

Eight activists, aged between 20 and 31, have participated in a rolling strike that began on November 2. There are rising fears that one or more of them could soon die in jail.

Their lawyers have long called for a meeting with Justice Secretary David Lammy to discuss welfare and prison conditions, believing such an intervention could be life-saving. But the government has so far refused, saying hunger strikes are not an unusual phenomenon in prisons and that policies to provide adequate medical care to anyone refusing food are being followed.

“Our clients’ food refusal constitutes the largest co-ordinated hunger strike in British history since 1981,” the lawyers wrote, referring to the Irish Republican inmates led by Bobby Sands. Sands and nine others died of starvation, one on day 46 of the protest. “As of today’s date, [the current] strike has lasted up to 51 days, nearly two months, and poses a significant risk to their life with each passing day,” the lawyers wrote.

‘Engage with each one’

Leading human rights barrister Michael Mansfield has backed calls for the government to intervene.

“It’s a simple proposition, engage with each one,” he told Al Jazeera. “That’s your job [as government], that’s what you’re there for. You are safeguarding people’s health, welfare and life.”

In a letter addressed to Lammy, he wrote, “Fundamental human rights in the United Kingdom are being destroyed in this quagmire of disinterest and populist politics, the most important being the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial by means of preparation and due process.

“There has to be an equality of arms which can hardly be achieved when a defendant is held in oppressive and lengthy periods of remand.”

Families of the prisoners have alleged mistreatment in prison, saying some detainees have been verbally abused and left without care in dangerous health conditions. The Ministry of Justice has denied these accusations and says it cannot comment on individual cases.

UK police drop probe into Bob Vylan’s chants about Israeli military


_{Bob Vylan perform on the West Holts Stage during day four of Glastonbury festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 28, 2025}

British police have said they will take no further action over comments made by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan about the Israeli military during a performance at the Glastonbury music festival in June.

Avon and Somerset Police said on Tuesday that the remarks did not meet the criminal threshold required for prosecution “for any person to be prosecuted”.

During the performance, the group’s lead singer – Pascal Robinson-Foster, known by his stage name Bobby Vylan – led chants of “death, death” directed at the Israeli military over its genocidal war in Gaza.

Police said there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”. The force added that it interviewed a man in his mid-30s and contacted about 200 members of the public as part of the investigation.

The chant, which was livestreamed by the BBC as part of its Glastonbury coverage on June 28, prompted a widespread backlash. The broadcaster later apologised for transmitting what it described as “such offensive and deplorable behaviour”, and its complaints unit found the BBC had breached editorial guidelines.

Avon and Somerset Police said it had considered the intent behind the words, the wider context, relevant case law and freedom of expression issues before concluding the investigation.

“We believe it is right this matter was comprehensively investigated, every potential criminal offence was thoroughly considered, and we sought all the advice we could to ensure we made an informed decision,” the statement said.

And how much did that all cost the tax payer... Freedom of speech prevailed, this time...

Belgium joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ

Belgium has formally joined the case launched by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ICJ – The Hague-based highest court of the United Nations – said Belgium had filed a declaration of intervention in the case. Other countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and Turkiye, have already joined the proceedings.

South Africa brought the case in December 2023, arguing that Israel’s war in Gaza violates the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

While a final ruling could take years, the ICJ issued provisional measures in January 2024 ordering Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and to allow unimpeded access for humanitarian aid. The court’s orders are legally binding although it has no direct mechanism to enforce them. The ICJ also said Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and its policies amount to annexation.

Israel has continued its assaults in Gaza and the occupied West Bank despite the rulings and growing international criticism while advancing plans to seize large parts of Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, the United States and several of its European allies continue to provide military and financial support to Israel. Washington has rejected the merits of South Africa’s case, and US lawmakers have criticised the country and issued threats against it. The US has also imposed sanctions on members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Belgium was also among a group of countries that recognised the State of Palestine in September. Nearly 80 percent of UN member states now recognise Palestine.

Since a ceasefire began on October 10, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said, Israel has killed at least 406 Palestinians and injured 1,118 in the enclave. Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, the ministry said, at least 70,942 Palestinians have been killed and 171,195 wounded.

Gaza patients facing death as Israel continues to block medical supplies

Gaza’s health system is on the brink of an unprecedented collapse, with thousands of patients facing death or disability amid a harsh Israeli siege on the enclave, a top health official has warned.

Munir al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the situation inside the territory’s hospitals was “tragic and horrific”, as Israeli authorities continued to block the flow of much-needed medical supplies, directly impacting the ability of doctors to respond to critical cases.

Doctors in war-ravaged Gaza have long warned that their efforts to save lives are being badly hampered by Israel’s refusal to allow the most essential medical supplies in. Despite a United States-backed ceasefire that took effect in October, Israel continues to violate its agreement with Hamas by failing to allow in agreed quantities of medical aid trucks, deepening what the Health Ministry has described as a critical and ongoing health emergency.

Al-Barsh said the health system was suffering from widespread shortages of medicines and medical supplies, particularly surgical consumables needed to perform operations. He said nearly three-quarters of the supplies needed were unavailable, with severe shortages of solutions, anaesthetics, gauze and dialysis supplies, while power outages and a significant shortage of generators were also hampering their work.

Gaza buildings bombed by Israel become refuge for Palestinians


_{The half-collapsed home of the Halawa family stands in Jabalia, Gaza City}

The Halawa family’s building still stands two storeys above the rubble in Gaza City, a rare survivor after two years of nonstop Israeli air attacks that levelled buildings across the besieged Palestinian enclave.

One section has collapsed, with bent metal rods protruding from where a roof once existed. The family built a narrow set of creaking wooden steps to access their home, though these makeshift stairs threaten to give way at any moment. Yet amid the destruction, it remains home.


<sub>Sahar Taroush converses with her brother in her partially collapsed home after returning during the recent ceasefire, Jabalia, Gaza City. Her children are also present: Ammar on the far left; Hassan holding his two-year-old sister, Ahlam; and Bisan on the right.


Bisan Taroush watches a movie on a laptop beneath the partially collapsed roof of her home, carrying on with daily life amid the ruins.</sub>

Israeli forces demolish shops in raids near occupied East Jerusalem


_{Israeli forces gather as excavators demolish a Palestinian building near the Silwan neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem on December 22}

Israeli forces have begun demolishing shops in the vicinity of the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem, as part of a wider military incursion across several Palestinian neighbourhoods, witnesses and medical officials say.

The raids, which began early on Tuesday, have extended into the nearby town of Kafr Aqab, where Israeli troops deployed in large numbers, carried out house searches and forcibly evicted residents from their homes, according to local media reports.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated at least three people injured during the raids in Qalandiya and Kafr Aqab. The injuries included a bullet wound to the thigh, wounds caused by shrapnel from live ammunition, and injuries resulting from physical assault.

The Jerusalem governorate reported that at least three Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire, in addition to dozens of cases of suffocation caused by the firing of tear gas and stun grenades, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Several Palestinians were detained during the large-scale incursion that was also accompanied by the deployment of military vehicles and bulldozers. Among those arrested are Anan Mohammed Taha and his father, Mohammed Taha, residents of the Qalandiya refugee camp, Wafa said.

‘Intimidation’ and ‘anxiety’

Residents said Israeli forces ordered several families to evacuate their homes, with at least three houses converted into temporary military outposts in Kafr Aqab. Homeowners were reportedly told the operation would continue until at least Wednesday morning.

Israeli forces also stormed the youth club inside the Qalandiya refugee camp and turned the facility into a military base, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent.

Journalists covering the operation were also targeted, including Al Jazeera Arabic reporters, with Israeli forces firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters in their direction during the raid in Kafr Aqab.

According to the Jerusalem governorate authorities, stun grenades were also fired directly towards students in the area as they were returning home from school, while private surveillance cameras were seized.

Israeli incursions across the West Bank average “60 raids per day”, Ibrahim said. In addition to the demolitions, Israeli forces confiscated goods from commercial shops in the Qalandiya refugee camp, Kafr Aqab and parts of northern Jerusalem, citing alleged unpaid municipal taxes.

Most Palestinians living in these areas hold Jerusalem residency identification cards. Residents say they are subject to high municipal taxes while receiving few basic services. Separately, confrontations were also reported in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli forces stormed the area.

Israel will never fully withdraw from Gaza, defence minister says

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said the Israeli military will never fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip and that an army unit will be established inside the Palestinian enclave.

Speaking on Tuesday, Katz said Israeli forces would remain deployed throughout Gaza, despite a United States-backed peace plan signed by Israel and Hamas in October that calls for a full Israeli military withdrawal and rules out the re-establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the territory.

“We are located deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave all of Gaza,” Katz said. “We are there to protect.” “In due course, we will establish Nahal [an Israeli infantry brigade] outposts in northern Gaza in place of the settlements that were uprooted,” Katz added, according to Israeli media.

Hours later, he issued a statement in English to the Reuters news agency, saying Nahal units would be stationed in Gaza “only for security reasons”. The Israeli media reported that US officials were displeased with Katz’s initial comments and demanded clarification.

Nahal units are military formations that combine civilian service with army enlistment and have historically played a role in the creation of Israeli communities.

Katz was speaking at a ceremony in the occupied West Bank marking the approval of 1,200 housing units in the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El.

Addressing settlement expansion in the West Bank, Katz said: “Netanyahu’s government is a settlements government … it strives for action. If we can get sovereignty, we will bring about sovereignty. We are in the practical sovereignty era.”

So to sum up, build a military base in Gaza surrounded by human shields and openly advocating Netanyahu's government is about colonizing Palestinian land.

Setback to pro-Israeli group as UK judge rules in favour of American comedian

A UK judges has thrown out a private prosecution brought by a group called ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ involving US comedian Reginald D Hunter for jokes on Israel. The judge called the prosecution abusive as he quashed the summons issued to Hunter. Rifat Jawaid says this verdict would have a far reaching impact on protecting free speech in the UK.

Elsewhere Greta Thunberg was arrested by the police in London for her solidarity with pro-Palestinian protesters currently on a hunger strike in UK prison.

"Settler Terrorists": How Israel Uses Homegrown Extremism to Steal Palestinian Land

We speak to independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who has recently returned from documenting Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Nathaniel describes being ambushed by settlers in October, on the first day of the olive harvest, in an attack that left one middle-aged Palestinian woman with a brain hemorrhage.

Israel PLOTS WAR While World Looks Away

Women’s rights are on a sharp decline in Israel. Advocates blame Netanyahu’s far-right government

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/24/middleeast/israel-womens-rights-netanyahu-intl-cmd


_{Protesters supporting women's rights attend a demonstration in Tel Aviv on February 20, 2023, against controversial legal reforms being touted by Israel's far-right government.}

They called themselves the “Women in Red.” Dressed in crimson robes and white caps, they marched with faces downturned in silent protest against Israel’s government in the year before the war in Gaza. Borrowing imagery from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the group meant to sound an alarm: the government’s judicial overhaul threatened to undo decades of progress on women’s rights.

Three years later, what the government dismissed as theatrical exaggeration is increasingly viewed as prescient foreshadowing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which relies upon the support of ultra-Orthodox parties, is moving Israel toward a more religious and conservative future.

Alongside broader efforts to weaken the Supreme Court – long the cornerstone of Israeli women’s equality – have come specific threats to women’s rights. Netanyahu’s religious partners have pushed bills expanding religious authority over civil life, including gender segregation in cultural events and education. With the power to collapse Netanyahu’s government should they withdraw their support, the religious parties have been able to bend the secular prime minister to their will.

The decline in women’s rights is measurable. Israel’s global standing on gender equality has plunged in recent years. In the 2025–26 Women, Peace and Security Index, produced by Georgetown University, Israel ranks 84 of 181 countries – behind Albania, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Before the current government came into power three years ago, it ranked 27.

The precipitous drop parallels a sharp decline in women’s representation in public life. Today, only six of Israel’s 33 ministers are women and few have senior roles. The current government has not made a single permanent appointment of a woman as director-general across over 30 ministries. No woman currently heads a major political party, and Netanyahu’s coalition includes two parties that have zero women on their lists.

...

One bill under debate at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, which could be finalized in the coming weeks, would dramatically expand the authority of state-run religious courts to handle civil disputes. These courts, staffed exclusively by men who rule according to Jewish law, already oversee marriage and divorce proceedings, including for secular couples. Under the proposed legislation, they would gain power to rule on financial disputes, business matters, and potentially child custody issues.

“This bill seeks to place women’s fate in the hands of a religious judiciary that inherently discriminates against them,” said Bonot Alternativa, the women’s protest group that once led the Women in Red. “We will not allow the government to force us into marriage with a system that despises us,” it said in a statement while its members protested as gagged brides in chains outside a rabbinical court in Tel Aviv earlier this month.

US is next...

Victory against Israeli West Bank settlement offers Palestinians some hope


_{Alice Kisiya is now able to regain access to her family's land in the occupied West Bank village of al-Makhrour after a legal victory}

For Alice Kisiya, a Palestinian Christian activist from Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank, this Christmas season is special.

On Tuesday, Kisiya was able, for the first time since 2019, to set foot on her family’s land in the Christian village of al-Makhrour after an Israeli court ruling in June eventually forced Israeli settlers to leave the land and dismantle an illegal outpost.

“This victory, which forced the settlers to dismantle their outpost in preparation for leaving for good, confirms to me that one must never tire of continuing the struggle, despite all the methods they used to pressure me and my family into leaving the land,” Kisiya told Al Jazeera.

...

“The Israeli court ruling is very important, because it affirms my rights and ownership of the land and exposes the falsity of the occupation and settlers’ manipulation of property documents in an illegal manner, as they were forged for political and personal purposes,” Kisiya, who was arrested in 2024 for protesting settler land grabs, said.


_{Alice Kisiya, centre, confronts Israeli soldiers after they declared her family’s land a closed military area, in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, Friday, August 2, 2024}

But despite her legal victory, Kisiya still does not stay on her land, fearing settler attacks and violence, which are commonplace in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“The court ruling granted my family and me the right to return to the land, the house and the restaurant that were demolished by the occupation, but we are now avoiding a permanent presence because of settler violence, backed by the right-wing government and its ministers, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir,” she said, referring to Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Kisiya, whose family home Israeli forces also demolished when she was a child, has become a symbol of resistance in her Christian community and among other Palestinians after years of leading a civil, legal and popular campaign to confront Israeli occupation policies and illegal settlement expansions.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/12/24/victory-against-israeli-west-bank-settlement-offers-palestinians-some-hope

Palestinian Christians worry about erasure as Israeli settlements grow

Christmas celebrations have returned to Bethlehem, but Palestinian Christians fear they are being erased by Israeli violence and settlement expansion. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports from Bethlehem, where illegal settlements are encroaching on the birthplace of Jesus.

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/12/24/palestinian-christians-worry-about-erasure-as-israeli-settlements-grow

Four Palestine Action hunger strikers vow to continue as two pause protest

Four prisoners in the United Kingdom linked to the banned group Palestine Action are continuing with their hunger strike, despite grave medical warnings and two fellow strikers having recently paused their protest after suffering serious health concerns.

The protest group Prisoners For Palestine said the four remaining hunger strikers – Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Lewie Chiaramello – would continue with their protest action, despite Ahmed, 28, being hospitalised on Saturday for the third time since he began refusing food.

“The remaining four will continue to refuse food on the basis of [their] demands,” the group said on Tuesday.

The hunger strikers are demanding immediate bail, the right to a fair trial, and for the UK to de-proscribe Palestine Action, which it outlawed as a “terror” group in July. For their part, the pro-Palestinian group says the UK government is complicit in Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza.

They are also calling for an end to alleged censorship of their communication, and are demanding that all sites operated by Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit, be closed.

The statement said the remaining strikers, who are being held on remand, were adding to their list of demands: calling for an end to non-association orders between them, for access to the same courses and activities as sentenced prisoners, and for Muraisi to be transferred back from a prison in northern England to Bronzefield prison in Surrey, closer to her networks in London.

‘Excruciating pain’

The pledge to continue with the strike comes after two of their fellow prisoners announced a pause to their strike on Friday after suffering serious health impacts.

Qesser Zuhrah, a 20-year-old who Prisoners For Palestine said had halted her hunger strike after 48 days of refusing food, was experiencing “continuous excruciating pain in her abdomen”, the group said.

Her decision to pause the hunger strike came after staff at the prison denied her an ambulance last week for more than 18 hours, prompting MP Zarah Sultana to join protests outside the jail before she was taken to hospital.

In a statement, Zuhrah – whose lawyers said she had lost 13 percent of her body weight – indicated she intended to return to the hunger strike, warning the government, “We will certainly return to battle you with our empty stomachs in the new year.”

Another prisoner, Amu Gib, had also resumed eating after the hunger strike had left them using a wheelchair due to severe weakness and brain fog.

MP alleges government ‘cruelty’

Sultana, representing the recently-formed Your Party, paid tribute to Zuhrah and Gib, saying their actions had “laid bare the cruelty of a Labour government wanting them to die”.

“They refused to give them that – and will resume in the new year,” she said in a statement, calling for immediate bail for the group.

She said the four remaining strikers remained “at a critical point, refusing food until their demands are met, UK complicity ends and Palestine is free”.

On Monday, lawyers for the hunger strikers said they had written a pre-claim letter to the government, warning that they would seek a High Court case over their demands to meet Justice Secretary David Lammy to discuss welfare and prison conditions.