US lawmakers demand accountability for Palestinian-American teen detained in Israel

Fifteen members of Congress have written to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, demanding to know what steps the United States has taken in response to the mistreatment of a Palestinian-American teenager who spent nine months in Israeli detention.

The letter, led by Senator Peter Welch and first seen by the Guardian, is centered around the case of Mohammed Ibrahim, a Florida resident who was 15 when Israeli soldiers arrested him during a raid on his family’s West Bank home in February 2025. He was charged with throwing objects at moving vehicles before being released on 27 November following a guilty plea and suspended sentence, and was taken directly to hospital upon his return.

The then 16-year-old was severely underweight, having lost roughly a third of his body weight, and had suffered a scabies skin infection a few months into his detention, the state department told his family at the time, according to correspondences seen by the Guardian.

Mohammed told family members and US consular officers that he and other Palestinian minors held in the same cell were beaten, threatened, pepper-sprayed and denied adequate food and medical care over the course of his detention.

In an interview with the advocacy group Defense for Children International – Palestine while still detained, Mohammed described receiving three small pieces of bread and a spoonful of yogurt for breakfast, with no dinner provided.

“There has been case after case of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, swept up in the Israeli military justice system, where they are not only denied basic rights of due process but subjected to systematic physical and psychological abuse,” the lawmakers wrote in the 16 February letter. “While such abuses are never permissible, we are especially concerned that cases involving abuse of US citizens in the West Bank be thoroughly investigated and that those responsible are brought to justice.”

The letter poses three questions to Rubio: whether state department officials have met with Mohammed since his release to hear his account directly, whether Washington has asked Israel to conduct an impartial investigation into the treatment of Ibrahim and his fellow detainees, and whether any Israeli military or prison personnel have been held accountable.

It also follows what the lawmakers describe as an unsatisfactory response to a letter first sent to Rubio in October. The original reply in December, signed by official Paul Guaglianone, acknowledged that Mohammed had been released but did not address the concerns raised in the letter.

The case first drew widespread attention after the Guardian exposed Ibrahim’s plight in July 2025. More than 100 US human rights, faith-based and civil society organizations called for Mohammed’s release last August, and the state department assigned a dedicated case officer in September. His family said they had almost no direct contact with him during his time in custody, relying on US embassy officials for updates.

The most recent letter drew signatures from senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, Jeffrey Merkley and Brian Schatz, alongside House members including Rashida Tlaib, Jerry Nadler, Jim McGovern and Maxwell Frost.

The lawmakers also raised the death of Walid Ahmad, a 17-year-old who shared Mohammed’s cell and was never charged with a crime. An autopsy reportedly found signs of prolonged malnutrition, untreated colitis, injuries consistent with blunt trauma and scabies.

“This type of abuse, which has become commonplace in the West Bank and Israeli prison facilities, must stop,” the lawmakers wrote.

The state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.