FEARS are growing over the health of a 14-year-old boy who is on a hunger strike over the Syrian refugee crisis.
Hussein Almasharqah, from Livingston, was so shocked by scenes of starvation on television that he imposed a food ban on himself to draw attention to the plight. He has promised not to eat until the Scottish and UK Governments take action over the humanitarian disaster.
The UN has issued bleak warnings about the Yarmouk refugee camp where dozens of Palestinians, many of them children, have died of starvation.
The Linlithgow Academy pupil yesterday entered the seventh day of his protest, which allows him only to drink liquids - a diet that health experts have labelled as dangerous.
The lack of nutrition has left him drained of strength with headaches and dizziness, but Hussein said: "I decided to go on a hunger strike in solidarity with the children and the people dying in that camp so at least I can feel for them and share their hunger."
His father Riyad, a plastic surgeon, said: "I'm not going to force feed him. We are all worried about him."
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