Umer Khalid, 22, is back in hospital. His mother hasn't heard his voice since January 26, when he called from intensive care with a dangerously slow heartbeat and failing organs. He'd been on a hunger strike for 17 days.
Now, nearly two weeks later, Wormwood Scrubs prison has told his family he's hospitalized again—but won't say why, or how he's doing. His mother, Shabana, has called and emailed repeatedly. "I fear for his life," she told Al Jazeera. "Mentally, he's probably stressed and distraught. We're not having contact with anybody."
When they last spoke, Khalid sounded exhausted. He complained of a dry mouth and had stopped drinking liquids as his protest escalated. By the end of the call, he could barely stand.
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Start Your News DetoxKhalid is one of five activists accused of breaking into RAF Brize Norton, the UK's largest airbase, last June. They spray-painted two military transport planes. The group denies the charges of property damage and entering a prohibited place. The incident, claimed by Palestine Action, cost millions in damage according to the British government, which later designated Palestine Action a "terrorist" organization—a move critics call an overreach against a direct action group focused on disrupting the UK arms industry.
He has muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness. This matters: his body was already fragile before the hunger strike, and before the hospital visits, and before spending months in remand.
Khalid is one of eight remand prisoners linked to Palestine Action who began a rolling hunger strike in November. All have since ended their protests. But the pattern is consistent: when these prisoners were hospitalized, their families struggled to get basic updates about their condition or care. The UK Ministry of Justice hasn't responded to requests for comment on Khalid's case.
His trial is scheduled for January 2027. By then, he will have spent roughly 18 months in pre-trial detention—well beyond the standard six-month limit. Meanwhile, this week, a jury acquitted six other Palestine Action-linked detainees of aggravated burglary charges from a 2024 raid on an Israeli defence firm's factory in Bristol.
For Khalid's mother, the uncertainty is the hardest part. She doesn't know what's wrong with him. She doesn't know if he's stable. She's waiting for a phone call that hasn't come.
