Former Shortland Street star begins hunger strike over Israel-Gaza war

Former Shortland Street star Will Alexander has gone on hunger strike in protest over the Israel Gaza war.

In a video posted online on Sunday, Alexander, who appeared in 36 episodes of the New Zealand soap, said his move had come as he didn't "know how to live in a world in which children are killed in such horrific numbers and so blatantly against international law with the active support of the New Zealand government."

Alexander said in a statement accompanying the video that at yesterday's Christchurch rally in support of Palestine, he started his hunger strike and vowed to continue until the government met three demands. 

"I am now in my second day of this zero calorie hunger strike and have no intention of stopping until my demands are met," he said.

Those demands included "the withdrawal of New Zealand troops from the Red Sea and the resumption and then doubling of the humanitarian funding for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency" as well as calling on "NZ company Rakon to stop supplying components for weapons used by Israel."

He said in the video that "if these demands were not met, I may soon be dead like thousands in Palestine and Israel", vowing he would "continue until the government stops supporting Israel's genocide".

Alexander is a self-declared member of the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

On Sunday (NZT), Reuters reported Israeli troops and tanks had pushed into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians.

Israel's forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city next to the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington.

The military also announced the recovery of the body of a man who was among more than 250 hostages seized by Hamas in a cross-border rampage on October 7 that triggered the war.

Former Shortland Street star Will Alexander has gone on hunger strike in protest over the Israel Gaza war.

In a video posted online on Sunday, Alexander, who appeared in 36 episodes of the New Zealand soap, said his move had come as he didn't "know how to live in a world in which children are killed in such horrific numbers and so blatantly against international law with the active support of the New Zealand government."

Alexander said in a statement accompanying the video that at yesterday's Christchurch rally in support of Palestine, he started his hunger strike and vowed to continue until the government met three demands. 

"I am now in my second day of this zero calorie hunger strike and have no intention of stopping until my demands are met," he said.

Those demands included "the withdrawal of New Zealand troops from the Red Sea and the resumption and then doubling of the humanitarian funding for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency" as well as calling on "NZ company Rakon to stop supplying components for weapons used by Israel."

He said in the video that "if these demands were not met, I may soon be dead like thousands in Palestine and Israel", vowing he would "continue until the government stops supporting Israel's genocide".

Alexander is a self-declared member of the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

On Sunday (NZT), Reuters reported Israeli troops and tanks had pushed into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians.

Israel's forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city next to the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington.

The military also announced the recovery of the body of a man who was among more than 250 hostages seized by Hamas in a cross-border rampage on October 7 that triggered the war.

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