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A Florida The family, already grieving the beating death of their 20-year-old relative, is now pleading with US leaders to help free the dead man’s cousin, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida, who is being held in a jail. Israel Eight months jail.
Relatives, advocacy groups and some members of Congress have been demanding the release of Mohammed Ibrahim since he was taken into custody by Israeli forces in February when he was 15. Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Saifollah Musalet, was beaten to death by settlers. west coast Al Majra as-Sharqiya village earlier this year.
“It’s really about two American sisters, one has just buried her son and her older sister is supporting her and praying that her son doesn’t join the club of Americans killed overseas,” said Zeyad Kadur, Mohammed’s uncle. “They’re going through this together.”
“This has basically numbed our family,” said Kamel Musalet, Saifullah’s father and Mohammed’s uncle. “It’s been more than three months and there’s not a day that goes by when my wife and I don’t cry.”
went to jail while visiting family
Mohammed, of Palm Bay, Florida, visited family in the West Bank with his parents in February, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to the group and several members of Congress, he was arrested on February 15 at a family home in his village near Ramallah on charges of throwing stones at Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Israel’s military has carried out regular arrest raids in the West Bank during the Israel–Hamas war, arresting unprecedented numbers of people Palestinians In prisons where prisoners have reported poor treatment and conditions. Israel says the large-scale arrests are to root out terrorism. But civilians and stone-pelters have been caught in the raids – and Palestinian-Americans like Mohammed are among them.
Israel regards stone throwers as militants, while Palestinians widely view the practice as legitimate resistance to the Israeli occupation.
The teen faces up to 20 years in prison for the alleged crime, for which his supporters say there is little evidence.
In an affidavit provided by Kadur, Mohammed is recorded telling his Palestinian lawyer that when he was arrested Israeli soldiers attacked him using rifle butts and that he confessed to throwing stones only after being threatened with another beating by interrogators.
“Initially, I refrained from confessing, but the interrogator threatened that if I did not comply, he would instruct the soldiers to beat me. Out of fear, I finally confessed,” the affidavit quoted Kishore as saying.
The family says they have been kept in the dark
More than 100 US faith-based, human rights and civil rights organizations have sent a joint letter to the Secretary of State marco rubio Urge action for Mohammed’s release.
Additionally, in a letter sent Tuesday to Rubio and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, 15 US senators and 12 US representatives said they have “grave concerns” over Mohammed’s situation. He urged Rubio and Huckabee “to intervene by directly involving the Israeli government to ensure the prompt release of this American boy.”
Musallet said Huckabee met with the family in July after his son’s death, raising his hopes that Mohammed would be released.
“We said, ‘Alhamdulillah,’ at least something good came from this and Mohammed was about to get out of jail,” Muslet said, using an Arabic phrase praising God. “And 3 1/2 months later, still nothing.”
Mohammed’s family has been blocked by Israeli forces from direct contact with their son since his arrest and has relied on sporadic reports from the U.S. Embassy in Israel about his condition in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons, his advocates say.
“We hope he knows we are doing everything we can to get him out,” said Mohammed’s father, Zaher Ibrahim.
Kadur said Mohammed, who turned 16 while in prison, was “abducted in the middle of the night and handcuffed and blindfolded.”
As for his parents, “the last time they saw their son was when he was thrown into the back of a jeep in February”, Kadur said.
“He’s not even an adult,” the teen’s uncle said. “He is a minor and in our eyes as a family, we also believe he is a hostage because the word prisoner does not describe a 15-year-old taken from his bedroom at gunpoint, blindfolded and handcuffed.”
Extremely poor conditions in Israeli prisons have been described
In an affidavit given to the family by his lawyer, Kishore said the cells are overcrowded, with some inmates sleeping on mattresses on the floor, according to the affidavit.
According to reports shared with his family by the U.S. Embassy and obtained by The Associated Press, Mohammed has lost weight and has an itchy infection.
“His health, both mentally and physically, is a big question for the family,” Kadur said. In April, a West Bank teenager who had been held without charge for six months in Megiddo prison, where Mohammed had spent time, became the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli custody after collapsing in the prison courtyard.
Defense for Children International-Palestine, whose lawyers met Mohammed, said that prisoners at Ofer are given very small portions of food at breakfast and lunch, no dinner and no fresh fruit. The group said showers are made available to a group of inmates, but only for short periods of time and not everyone gets a shower.
Mohammed’s mother and father remain in the West Bank in hopes of returning with him to the United States, the group said, fearing that if they leave, Israel will not let them return.
Israel’s military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to AP requests for comment on Mohammed’s case. The Israel Prison Service said it does not comment on individual prisoners or provide information about their identity, legal status, location or charges for privacy, operational and security reasons.
The US State Department said in a statement that it was closely following Mohammed’s case and working with the Israeli government on the matter. It said it could not comment further due to privacy and other concerns.
Some of the Palestinians captured during Israel’s West Bank raids were released within days. But others, including teenagers, have been detained for months without charge or trial. Other Americans have faced extended Israeli military detention. And at least four Palestinian Americans have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since the war began.
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians want those areas as independent states in the future.
At Ofer prison, where Mohammed is currently being held, detainees who spoke to the AP reported low food rations, overcrowding and regular beatings by guards.
The teen’s affidavit said he spent the first month of his captivity under interrogation at the Ofer camp – a facility developed by Israel’s military to hold Gaza detainees during the war, which has drawn criticism for inhumane conditions.
Kadur, the teen’s uncle, said he suspected other American citizens would be treated similarly.
“The question I have to ask our elected officials at any level is, if his name were not Mohammed, if he were not Palestinian-American, would he still be there?” Kadur said.
“The real question is why is a 16-year-old kid hungry and suffering from a skin infection rather than going back home to a soccer game or getting his driver’s permit?”
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Martin reported from Atlanta and Frankel from New York.