A Palestine Action-linked hunger striker begged prison staff to call her an ambulance as she suffered worsening chest pains – but was ignored and left alone for hours on her cell floor, her friends and family have said. Qesser Zuhrah, who has not eaten for 42 days, is among eight people refusing food as they await trial for alleged break-ins aimed at disrupting Britain’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Lawyers representing the hunger strikers wrote to justice secretary David Lammy last week to warn that their clients may die if he does not negotiate with them. Zuhrah buzzed from her cell last week at HMP Bronzefield to ask for a nurse after she began to feel chest pain that spread to her neck and shoulder, Middle East Eye reported on Sunday. “She lay down on the floor and couldn’t get up,” said Niamh Grant, a friend of Zuhrah’s who spoke to her on the phone. “As she continued to be ignored, she then started to beg for an ambulance to come because she knew that something was happening,” added Ella Moulsdale, Zuhrah’s next of kin. A prison officer told Zuhrah to wait for a nurse, who arrived at least two hours after her chest pains started. The nurse took her vitals and gave her an electrocardiogram test. She said she would be back in 10 minutes with the test results but Zuhrah was then left alone for hours. She later buzzed prison medical staff and said, “Can you ring an ambulance? I’m scared,” but they hung up on her. “This is how people die in their cells,” Grant said. “She could barely get up to call me, and all I could do was try to call for the nurse for her, and then get back to listening to her cry in pain and struggle to breathe." The Ministry of Justice and HMP Bronzefield said they could not comment on individual cases. There have been protests supporting the hunger strikers across the UK, including rallies at several BBC offices calling for the corporation to cover the story.