Wyden, Merkley, Dexter, Colleagues Demand Accountability for Israel’s Detention and Abuse of Palestinian-American Teenager Mohammed Ibrahim

Wyden, Merkley, Dexter, Colleagues Demand Accountability for Israel's Detention and Abuse of Palestinian-American Teenager Mohammed Ibrahim

This week marks one year since Israeli forces arrested and detained Mohammed Ibrahim, a U.S. citizen, for ten months

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley with U.S. Representative Maxine Dexter today joined Senate and House colleagues to demand accountability for the Israeli military's nearly ten-month detention of Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American minor.

On February 16, 2025, U.S. citizen and Florida resident Mohammed Ibrahim was arrested in his home in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, near Ramallah in the West Bank, at 3 am by heavily armed Israeli soldiers. For nearly ten months, the then 15-year-old boy was detained without trial and denied visitation from family. He was finally released on November 27, 2025. The lawmakers highlight how his physical and psychological abuse by Israeli soldiers underscores Israel's systematic denial of basic rights and due process to Palestinian detainees, especially minors.

"Following his arrest and during his time in custody, we received periodic reports from Mohammed's family and U.S. Consular officers regarding Mohammed's treatment by Israeli soldiers. He and the Palestinian minors detained in the same cell were beaten, threatened, pepper sprayed in the face, and denied adequate food and medical care for, in Mohammed's case, more than nine months. Mohammed lost a third of his body weight and was covered in scabies, as were the others," the lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "One of his cellmates, 17-year-old Walid Ahmad, who was never charged with a crime, died. His autopsy findings showed signs of prolonged malnutrition, untreated colitis, injuries likely caused by blunt trauma, and scabies. After his release, Mohammed described in detail the brutality and humiliation he and his cellmates were subjected to-mistreatment that no one should be forced to endure, least of all a 15-year-old."

"This type of abuse, which has become commonplace in the West Bank and Israeli prison facilities, must stop. 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. While such abuses are never permissible, we are especially concerned that cases involving abuse of U.S. citizens in the West Bank be thoroughly investigated and that those responsible are brought to justice," the lawmakers concluded.

In their letter, the lawmakers request immediate answers from Rubio to the following questions:

1. Has anyone from the State Department met with Mohammed since his release to hear from him directly about his treatment by Israel Prison Service (IPS) authorities? If not, why not?
2. Has the State Department requested the Government of Israel to conduct a thorough, impartial investigation of the abuse that he and the other minors who were detained with him were subjected to?
3. Have any IDF or IPS personnel been punished for the abuse of Mohammed Ibrahim?

This letter follows an initial letter sent in October 2025 letter that Merkley led and signed by Wyden and Dexter to press the Trump administration on the detention of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim.

This latest letter was led by U.S. Senators Peter Welch, D-Vt., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, D-Fla. In addition to Wyden, Merkley and Dexter, the letter was cosigned by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and U.S. Representatives Don Beyer, D-Va., Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Greg Casar, D-Texas, and Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

The full letter is here.