“I’m quite exhausted,” admitted socialist assemblymember Zohran Mamdani yesterday, speaking by phone a few hours before ending a five-day hunger strike in front of the White House, demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

Mamdani, who is part of a slate of New York state legislators backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was joined by other hunger strikers, including actor and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, Delaware state representative Madinah Wilson-Anton, activist and writer Sumaya Awad, Virginia state representative Sam Rasoul, Oklahoma state representative Mauree Turner, and Michigan state representative Abraham Aiyash.

While Mamdani has used the hunger strike tactic before — successfully demanding debt relief for New York City taxi workers in 2019 — the solidarity surrounding the past week’s action was unprecedented in US politics, reflecting the impressive movement against Israel’s brutal war, as well as the growing representation of the Left in government.