THREE University of Glasgow students have begun a hunger strike as they continue their campaign for the institution to sever its relations with Israel and the arms trade.

This morning, 30 students once again took occupation of the Charles Wilson building renaming it the Ahmad Manasra Building in honour of the 23-year-old Palestinian man who has languished in an Israeli jail since he was 13 years old.

It is the second time in a fortnight the building has been occupied, as the campaign – co-ordinated by the student activist group Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society – ramps up its efforts to convince the university to ditch its £6.8 million investments in arms companies supplying the Israeli military as they continue their onslaught on the people of Palestine.

Now, in a bid to increase pressure on university management to end the institution’s “complicity” in war crimes, three of the students occupying the building have begun a hunger strike.

Not wishing to be named, one hunger striker said: “The university has shown that it is happy to be complicit in the death and destruction of thousands of Palestinian lives, so we have decided to bring the implications of their decisions to their doorstep.”

Another said they had “tried every single other avenue,” adding: “Now we are left with this extreme form of protest.

“We will continue to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people, especially while our university continues to fund genocide and ethnic extermination.

“Even during the so-called ceasefire agreement, Israel banned aid and food from entering Gaza.

“What we are going through is a choice, we have chosen to hunger strike.

“The children in Gaza have no choice but to endure their forced starvation.”

A University spokesperson said: “The University of Glasgow upholds the right to freedom of expression, including the right of staff and students to engage in peaceful demonstrations.“