A 16-year-old boy from Palm Bay should be worrying about homework, not surviving an Israeli military prison. Yet that is exactly the situation for 16-year-old Mohammad Zaher Taysir. Instead of spending his days in class and on the pristine Central Florida beaches, he is being held in the Ofer military camp’s prison, where he has been since his arrest on Feb. 16 by Israeli forces in Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiyah in the West Bank.
Mohammed Ibrahim was charged with throwing stones at Israeli forces, an infraction for which he has received no trial and for which the Israeli government routinely hands out sentences as long as 20 years to children. Ibrahim also said he was forced to admit to throwing rocks under the threat of beatings. Israel is the only nation to prosecute children in military courts.
Discussing the conditions of his detention in an interview with a lawyer last month, Mohammed Ibrahim described overcrowded, cold cells with children sleeping on the floor, inadequate meals and unhygienic conditions which led to a scabies infection.
Ibrahim’s family’s desperate cries for help to the government have fallen on deaf ears. Only after months of advocacy by our organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other advocates did 27 members of Congress sign a letter urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to demand Ibrahim’s release.
The fact that every single American elected official has not come out to condemn the mistreatment of an American teen is appalling. This is far from the first time Israel has unjustly detained an American citizen.
In February 2024, 46-year-old mother and New Orleans resident Samaher Esmail was dragged out of her family’s house in the West Bank by Israeli forces in the middle of the night. She was arrested over social media posts critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Israeli forces reportedly beat Esmail and did not provide an attorney during her interrogation. Israeli forces didn’t allow her access to her medications for six days, causing her to faint in prison. Although she was eventually released on bail, Esmail is not allowed to return to the United States until her military trial concludes.
Around the same time, Palestinian-American brothers Borak and Hashem Alagha, 18 and 20 respectively, were arrested in the middle of the night in a Gaza refugee camp. The female relatives of the young men were reportedly tied up and blindfolded and thrown out of the house as well. The Israeli government provided no evidence for the claims made against the two men.
The nation we are supposed to believe is America’s “greatest ally” has also on numerous occasions been accused of killing American citizens. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist, was killed while participating in a protest in the West Bank. Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-old born and raised in Louisiana, was shot dead while visiting family in the West Bank in January 2024.
Another 17-year-old, Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour of Florida, was shot and killed by Israeli forces, his family said. In July of this year, Sayfollah Musallet was beaten to death by a mob of Israeli settlers while visiting family in the West Bank, according to Palestinian officials. Khamis Ayyad, another American citizen, was also killed by Israeli settlers burning down Palestinian homes in the village of Silwad.
A nation that kidnaps, tortures and kills American citizens is not an ally. These crimes are an assault on American sovereignty. The U.S. government must demand that Israel release Mohammed Ibrahim back to Palm Bay where he belongs, and must not allow Americans to languish in the prisons of a state that has just spent the past three years showing the world how little it cares about human rights and international law. Our nation must hold the Israeli government accountable for its barbaric murders of American citizens.
If the Trump administration fails to do so, the Israeli government will be further convinced that an American passport is meaningless and will continue killing Americans.
Hiba Rahim is the deputy executive director at the Florida Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Ismail Allison serves as national communications manager at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
