Fifteen members of Congress have written a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding to know what action the United States has taken over 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, centers around the case of Florida resident Mohamed Ibrahim, who was 15 when Israeli soldiers arrested him in a February 2025 raid on his family’s West Bank home. A case has been registered against him. He was charged with moving vehicles.
The then 16-year-old was severely underweight, having lost about a third of his body weight, and suffered from a scabies skin infection months into his detention, the State Department told his family at the time, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian.
Mohammed told family members and US consular officials that he and other Palestinian minors in the same cell were beaten, threatened, pepper-sprayed and denied adequate food and medical care during his detention.
In an interview with the advocacy group Defense for Children International – Palestine, Mohammed described receiving three small pieces of bread and a spoonful of yogurt for breakfast, while no dinner was provided.
“The Israeli military justice system has case after case of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, where they are not only denied basic rights but also subjected to systematic physical and psychological abuse,” the lawmakers wrote in a Feb. 16 letter. “Such abuses will never be tolerated, and we are particularly concerned that cases of abuse of US citizens in the West Bank be fully investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”
The letter poses three questions to Rubio: whether State Department officials have met with Mohammed to hear his account directly since his release, whether Washington has asked Israel to conduct an impartial investigation into Ibrahim and his fellow prisoners, and whether any Israeli military or prison personnel were responsible.
It also follows what lawmakers described as an unsatisfactory response to a letter originally sent to Rubio in October. The original reply, signed by official Paul Guaglianone in December, acknowledged that Mohamed had been released but did not address the concerns raised in the letter.
The case first gained widespread attention in July 2025 after the Guardian exposed Ibrahim’s plight. Last August, more than 100 US human rights, faith-based and civil society organizations called for Mohamed’s release, and in September the State Department appointed a special case officer. 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 was signed by House members including Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, Jeffrey Merkley and Brian Schatz, Rashida Tlaib, Jerry Nadler, Jim McGovern and Maxwell Frost.
Lawmakers also raised the death of 17-year-old Waleed Ahmed, who shared Mohammed’s cell and was never charged. Autopsy reported chronic malnutrition, untreated colitis, blunt force trauma and scabies.
“This type of abuse in West Bank and Israeli prison facilities generally must stop,” the lawmakers wrote.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
