A THIRD prisoner held on remand for Palestine-related activism became the latest to join a hunger strike yesterday.

Heba Muraisi, who has family in Gaza, has been held at New Hall prison without trial since November last year after being linked to a Palestine Action protest.

She now joins Amu Gibb and Qesser Zuhrah, who are also linked to the group, and began refusing food on Sunday.

Ms Muraisi is one of 24 people arrested by counter-terrorism police in relation to a Palestine Action raid on a research hub owned by Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems in Filton, near Bristol, last August. 

Ms Zuhrah is also a member of the so-called Filton 24, while Ms Gibb is among five people accused of breaking into the RAF Brize Norton air base and spray-painting two military aircraft in July.

Since then, Palestine Action has been banned and proscribed as a terrorist group.

The hunger strikers are demanding that the ban be lifted, the right to a fair trial, and for Elbit Systems sites in Britain to be permanently shut down.

Francesca Nadin, Prisoners for Palestine spokesperson, highlighted that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously defended an anti-war activist who similarly broke into an RAF base while working as a human rights lawyer in 2003.

She said: “We would like to ask Keir Starmer, how do you justify labelling Amu Gibb a terrorist for allegedly taking the same action that you defended your own clients for in the past?”

Anas Mustapha, head of public advocacy at Cage, said: “Counterterrorism has always been a tool to silence dissent and criminalise those who challenge state violence.

“This hunger strike exposes the continuity between Britain’s colonial past and its present-day repression: a government that once carved up Palestine now prosecutes those who demand its freedom.”