FEARS are mounting for the safety and even the survival of a Florida teenager who has now been held in a notorious Israeli prison for more than nine months.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Tampa, was snatched from the family home he was visiting in the West Bank in February when more than two dozen armed men entered the residence at around 3am.

Ibrahim, a US citizen and then 15, was seized at gunpoint, blindfolded and his hands zip-tied behind his back. He was then transported to an Israeli prison and was held for months without charge, although yesterday it was reported he is expected to appear in court in Israel later this week.

“They just took him,” his mother, Muna Ibrahim, 46, told National Public Radio in November of the February abduction. “Since that day I didn’t see my son. I didn’t hear his voice.”

Palestinians arrested by Israeli authorities are brought before a criminal rather than a civil court. Although arrested at 15, because Ibrahim is now 16, he will be tried as an adult under an Israeli law that only applies to Palestinian children. Israeli children are tried in civil court and not considered adults until 18. This means Ibrahim could face a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Israeli authorities claim he was throwing rocks, possibly at cars belonging to settlers, but no evidence or proof has been forthcoming and the story has changed several times. Israeli authorities have characterised Ibrahim’s actions as “a serious and potentially deadly crime.” His family say that Ibrahim was beaten into a false confession.

Despite efforts by family members and legal representatives to secure his release, Ibrahim has languished in prison without any contact with his parents, who have remained in the West Bank in hopes of being reunited soon with their son. Instead, his hearings have been continually postponed.

US consular officials have reportedly visited Ibrahim twice, yet the US State Department and President Donald Trump have failed to act on his behalf, raising concerns about the protections that are supposed to be afforded Americans abroad by their respective embassies.

Ibrahim is now in Ofer prison, a notorious torture centre, where he has reportedly lost at least 25 per cent of his body weight. He shows signs of bruising from torture, told a visiting consular official he was beaten with a rifle butt, and recently contracted scabies, which was left untreated until it had spread to his entire body.

After the November 13 visit, the US consular official was alarmed enough to call Ibrahim’s family immediately, warning that the teenager’s mental health had also declined.

“As soon as he walked out he picked up the phone and contacted the family,” Ibrahim’s uncle Zeyad Kadur, who has been serving as a family spokesperson, told ABC News.

“He said ‘I have to be honest with you guys, your son doesn’t look good. It looks like he’s lost more weight, he’s got dark circles around his eyes and mentally he seemed kind of disconnected from everything’,” Kadur said the official reported.

Kadur told ABC that during an earlier court hearing, Ibrahim saw his father on a screen and tried to wave hello but the military guards smacked his arm down.

“That was done in front of the lawyer, the prosecutor, the judge,” Kadur said, “so you can just imagine what happens when the cameras are off.”

Efforts have been under way for months to get Ibrahim released. A letter in August from more than 100 civil rights and faith-based organisations calling for his release was left unanswered by the Trump administration.

In October, a letter signed by 27 members of the US House and Senate and sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, expressed grave concern for Ibrahim’s wellbeing. Several of those who signed the letter have been able to meet with family members in the West Bank as well as other family anxiously waiting in Florida.

“His family has received updates from US embassy staff and former detainees who described his alarming weight loss, deteriorating health, and signs of torture as his court hearings continue to be routinely postponed,” the elected officials wrote. Ibrahim’s court hearing is now scheduled for December 15.

“In a disturbingly similar case, and underscoring our urgency concerning Mohammed’s continued pre-trial detention, 17-year-old Palestinian Walid Ahmad collapsed and died in Megiddo prison on March 22 2025 after also being detained for six months without charges or trial for allegedly throwing rocks,” the officials wrote.

“Walid’s post-mortem examination indicates that he died from a combination of abuse and mistreatment that led to him collapsing and hitting his head, including extreme malnutrition, torture, scabies and the denial of medical intervention. It is the responsibility of the US government to ensure that this recent tragedy does not repeat itself with Mohammed.”

Like the earlier petition, the letter received no response from the White House.

In July, Ibrahim’s first cousin, Sayfollah Musallet, also a US citizen, was beaten to death in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, a tragedy the family has reportedly kept from Mohammed given his fragile mental state.

“This is an American kid so you would think that the United States government would be doing everything possible to secure his release, but they’re not,” said Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a signatory to the letter who has been one of the most outspoken legislators in favour of Palestinian rights and in condemning Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

“After all, we have a very close relationship with Israel. United States taxpayers provide billions of dollars to the Netanyahu government and the state of Israel. You would think that we would be able to get this American kid out of prison,” Van Hollen said in a video message.

As the senator pointed out, “the number one duty of our embassies overseas” is to “protect American citizens.”

According to interviews with former Palestinian prisoners collected by B’tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, there were clear indications of “a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.”

The report, entitled Welcome to Hell, the phrase spoken by inmates in Ofer when new prisoners arrive, found “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”

B’tselem advocates “for a future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all people, Palestinian and Jewish alike, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” according to its website.

According to Defence for Children International, Palestine, which provides legal assistance to children held in the Israeli military detention system, Israel detains between 500 to 700 children annually, the youngest just 12.

“The most common charge is stone-throwing,” the group says. Israeli courts secure a 99.76 percent conviction rate, a number widely reported by human rights groups and media organisations.

Ibrahim’s lawyers may be considering a plea deal for a reduced sentence of two to three years, according to some sources and because of Israel’s near 100 per cent success in convicting Palestinian defendants in what is widely viewed as a kangaroo court.

But the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, in a statement from its Florida chapter, described the effort to force Ibrahim to take a deal as blackmail.

In a statement the group said the US should instead immediately intervene to secure his release given that “Israeli military prosecutors reportedly threatened to keep him unjustly imprisoned for up to three more years unless Mohammed admits to a crime he did not commit and accepts two years in an Israeli military prison.”

In the meantime, the family, their elected representatives and numerous medical and human rights groups are pleading at least to get Ibrahim transferred to a hospital for urgent medical care.

“As doctors we are very worried for his health and safety,” said Dr Nidal Jboor, a co-founder of the US-based Doctors Against Genocide, one of the groups advocating on Ibrahim’s behalf. “There needs to be an urgent intervention to save his life and the life of other illegally abducted Palestinians. We are appealing to the US government to intervene and ensure his immediate release and make sure he gets adequate medical care.”

Doctors Against Genocide has been lobbing monthly on Capitol Hill since its formation two years ago, advocating for an end to the Gaza genocide and the illegal occupation of the West Bank and for a genuine ceasefire deal that restores Palestinian rights.

“We know that more than 90 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention in the past two years alone, due to torture, starvation and illness,” Jboor said. “That includes doctors, nurses and children.” The group is urging Americans to call the State Department and the White House demanding Ibrahim’s release and safe return to US soil.

“This is about a child,” said Kadur, the uncle. “We’re not talking about borders, we’re not talking about religion or politics. We’re just talking about being human and taking care of this young boy.”

Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland.