Inside the grassroots campaign to release U.S. teenager Mohammed Ibrahim from Israeli detention

Last month, 16-year-old Palestinian-American Mohammed Ibrahim was finally released after nearly 10 months of languishing in an Israeli prison.

In February, Ibrahim, whose family splits its time between Florida and the illegally-occupied West Bank, was detained during a nighttime raid at his home in Silwad and accused of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, an accusation that his family denies.

Ibrahim’s relatives say that he was beaten by Israeli soldiers during his detention, held in solitary confinement, and barred from contact with his family. While held in prison, his cousin, 20-year-old American citizen Saifullah Kamel Musallet, was killed by Israeli soldiers.

Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Ayah Ziyadeh, a Palestinian human rights scholar and advocate who partnered with Mohammed Ibrahim’s family to launch a grassroots campaign through Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action). Their collective effort was instrumental in securing his release.

Mondoweiss: Can you explain the details of Mohammed’s arrest and detention?

Ziyadeh: Mohammed Ibrahim was detained in February of this year. He was only 15 years old.

Israeli occupation forces stormed his family’s home in the West Bank in the middle of the night, as they usually do. There were over 30 soldiers who stormed the house, handcuffed him, and took him from his family, and took him to a facility.

From that point on, he was not allowed any contact with his family. He was arrested and accused of throwing stones. And he was not allowed any contact with his family, except through his lawyer. From February 2025 until his release, he was not allowed any contact with his family.

He was placed in two different facilities during his arrest, and the conditions were really awful. He was beaten up constantly by soldiers. We heard from lawyers that when he would meet with the lawyer, and then they would leave, they would abuse him.

There was a moment when he was in court, and he knew that his parents were watching from the camera. So he waved at them. He was beaten up after that. The conditions were so bad that he lost over 30% of his weight. He contracted scabies because of the prison conditions. And so they put him in solitary confinement for that, which also declined his mental health.

He turned 16 while he was in prison and while he was detained his 20-year-old cousin, Saifullah Musallat, who is also a Palestinian-American from Florida, 20 years old, was murdered by settlers in July.

He was his best friend outside of being his cousin, and Mohammed found out about his death from fellow prisoners.

So, his conditions were very traumatizing, and there was a level of torture inflicted on his family because he wasn’t allowed any communication with them.

I know his family called on Florida Congress members to intervene in his case. Can you discuss those efforts and whether they were successful?

His Congress members were very negligent. [Editor’s note: The Ibrahim’s congressional representatives are Rep. Mike Haridopolos and Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody.]

They wouldn’t respond to calls. They wouldn’t meet with the family. In the beginning, the family obviously reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Israel, and they also reached out to [Secretary of State and former Florida Senator] Marco Rubio, who neglected the case until Saifullah was murdered.

When Saifullah was murdered, the [State Department] basically said, We’ll do everything that we can, but this was July. He had been detained since February. Rubio told the family that he’ll do everything that he can to release him, but still, the pressure was very low from the U.S. government on Israel, and it was the same thing with Florida legislators on a federal level; they were very negligent and did not pay the family any mind.

Can you discuss the campaign to release him and what ultimately led to his release?

It was actually AJP Action, a C4 of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) that launched the first campaign.

It was a grassroots campaign, and no other campaign had been done for him because the family was still trying to communicate with the embassy, the government, and their lawmakers.

In a short time, it evolved into a nationwide campaign, with several other organizations joining, including CAIR, IMEU, and others. There was lot of pressure put on every member of Congress, not just Florida members of Congress. We sent several emails to the White House, Rubio, and members of Congress.

The pressure was so high that we heard Marco Rubio got annoyed because of the numerous emails and calls the administration was receiving about the issue.

There were non-Florida Congress members who intervened, like Maryland Senator Senator Chris Van Hollen, who was very vocal about this. He met with the family. He posted about Mohammed on social media, amongst others in Congress. So there were a lot of congressional allies of the family that were not representing Florida whatsoever, that were very involved.

I think it was a mix of that pressure. Additionally, AJP Action’s annual Palestinian Advocacy Day took place in October, during which we mobilized over 700 people to call for Mohammed’s release.

How is Mohammed doing now, and how is his family doing?

His conditions, unfortunately, coming out were not good because of the abuse and the lack of sustenance, and he got sick in prison.

He’s developed stomach issues, headaches. Again, he lost a significant amount of weight, which, for a child, will obviously have long-term effects.

In front of me right now, I have a letter from Mohammed’s family from the day he was released. I can read some of it:

Words can’t describe the immense relief we have as a family right now to have Mohammed in his parents’ arms. We thank God for bringing him home to us today.

Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place. For more than nine months, our family has been living a horrific and endless nightmare, particularly Mohammed‘s mother and father, who haven’t been able to see or touch their youngest child for nearly a year, all while knowing Israeli soldiers were beating him and starving him.

We couldn’t believe Mohammed was free until his parents wrapped their arms around him and felt him safe. Right now, we are focused on getting Mohammed the immediate medical attention he needs after being subjected to Israel’s abuse and inhumane conditions for months. We just want Mohammed to be healthy and to have his childhood back.

We’d like to thank the more than 100 organizations, local Florida community members, volunteers, and members of Congress who continued to speak up for Mohammed and demand his immediate freedom.

Thank you for bringing his story to the American people and the world. There are hundreds of children like Mohammed unjustly trapped in an Israeli military prison being subjected to Israel’s abuse and torture. No parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or child should ever have to go through what Muhammad just went through.

As we support Mohammed and are beyond relieved he is free, we will continue to demand justice for Saifullah Musallat, an American and Mohammed’s first cousin who was beaten to death and murdered by a mob of Israeli settlers on July 11, 2025.

We expect the American government to protect our families. Mohammed was forced to spend his 16th birthday unjustly imprisoned by Israel, separated from people who love him. Now that Mohammed is with his family, he can finally wish him, they can finally wish him a happy birthday.

I think there’s another layer to it that not only was he harmed and detained, but he was also exposed to the wrath of the Israeli government and the way that they treat children in prison, generally speaking. So while he was in prison, the Israeli soldiers would also threaten him with his friends, who were also arrested with him. They weren’t Americans. There were three others arrested with him for the same thing.

They would beat him and tell him, If you don’t admit to doing this, we’re going to harm your friends. He also saw the conditions that all of these child prisoners were put through, but the good news is that the family was able to leverage Mohammed’s release to get those three boys released a couple of days after he was released.

I think he’s probably dealing with a lot of trauma that he has to work through alongside the rest of the kids that were released with him.

This case is obviously not an isolated incident. Can you talk about Israel’s detention of Palestinian children in a wider context?

Unfortunately, the entire epidemic of Israel taking Palestinians as prisoners, men, women, and children is very neglected on the world stage. But particularly when it comes to children.

As of June 30 of this year, at least 360 Palestinian children were being held in detention by Israel, and more than forty percent are being held without any charge or trial. Israel is the only entity in the world that tries children in military courts.

We’ve observed this trend over the years, and it has only worsened. Some children who are taken are as young as 11 or 12 years old. Most of the time, they’re taken in rough condition. They’re taken from their family in the middle of the night. The family knows nothing about their whereabouts, is not allowed to have any communication with them.

The way they’re investigated is very, very cruel. They’re investigated as if they’re an adult. They have no idea what’s happening. They’re afraid. If you’re a child, the only thing you’re thinking about is being with your parent, and the Israeli military will do anything to get them to confess to something that they didn’t do by falsely promising them that if they do confess, they’ll take them home to their parent.

When you’re talking about Palestinians more generally, let alone the children that are taken, it’s from every level, from the minute they’re detained, taken from their families the to the investigation process, to the prison conditions, it’s so many levels of torture, mental, emotional, and physical that are incomprehensible to the average human being, let alone a child.