Palestinian-US teen held by Israel for nine months without charge due in court

A Palestinian-American teenager is expected to appear in court in Israel later this week after nine months in detention without being charged.

Mohammed Ibrahim, who is 16 and lives in Florida, was arrested in February while on holiday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for allegedly throwing stones at Jewish settlers, something he denies.

Last month, 27 Democratic US Senators and House members sent a letter to the US State Department, urging the Trump administration to do more to pressure Israel to release him.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Mohammed had committed a "a serious potentially deadly crime" and that the court was proceeding under due process.

The teenager's family disagrees.

"You can ask anybody you know, he's a real sweet boy, into his sports and his PlayStation and school," his father, Zahar Ibrahim, tells me before wiping a tear from his eye.

Mohammed was arrested in a raid on his family's holiday home in the Palestinian village of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers. He was 15 years old at the time.

Mr Ibrahim has not seen or spoken to Mohammed since February.

"He's just a regular fun kid that loves and respects anybody," Mr Ibrahim tells me from the holiday home.

Unable to speak to his son for nine months, Mr Ibrahim has only heard accounts of his detention through court documents and says his son was forced to confess.

According to the court documents, he says, Mohammed woke up surrounded by Israeli soldiers. "They tied him up and blindfolded him, and they threw him on the floor of the jeep and took him to wherever they took him."

Mr Ibrahim, a father of four who runs an ice cream business in Florida, says his son only confessed to throwing stones because the soldiers beat him.

The Israeli prime minister's office has not responded to a request for comment on whether Mohammed is being held without charge or the allegation that he was beaten while in detention.

The US embassy assigned a case worker who has visited Mohammed in prison. Mr Ibrahim says they told him he had lost a lot of weight and was not doing well.

He has a message for President Donald Trump, another Florida resident.

"Do what you said from day one. You know America first. He's American, and he's a citizen and he's a child. So, you know, as a president, his [Trump's] duty is to protect Americans, and we're not seeing that for Mohammed."

"What's lucky about an American passport?" Mr Ibrahim says. "It's not helping. That's one thing that usually a foreign passport makes a difference, but the US state department is not really doing anything."

A state department spokesperson told the BBC that it was "tracking Mr Ibrahim's case closely and working with the government of Israel on this case".

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and embassy staff in Jerusalem were also "deeply involved", they said, before adding that they could not comment further "due to privacy and other considerations".

Because Mohammed is an American citizen who was only on holiday in the West Bank when he was arrested, his case has attracted the attention of US lawmakers.

"This is a case where the US does have influence. It's just failing to exercise its influence, and that's a great dereliction of duty," says Democratic US Senator, Chris van Hollen, from his office in Washington DC.

Along with 26 other US lawmakers he has written a letter to the state department and President Trump demanding more to be done to release Mohammed.

"If this were any other country, you would be seeing a much bigger effort. But for whatever reason, the Trump administration does not want to push the Netanyahu government to do what it needs to do," Van Hollen tells us.

"You have an American citizen who is being terribly mistreated, who has been beaten up, who has been deprived of adequate food and nutrition, and I haven't heard much from the US government. I haven't heard anything from the secretary of state. I mean, Donald Trump himself. I mean, who says that he is the 'America First' president?"

Mohammed is being held without charge at Ofer prison in the West Bank. It also houses adult detainees, including some who have been convicted of the most serious terrorist offences including murder.

Mohammed's case has become relatively high profile because he is an American citizen.

But there are around 350 Palestinian child security detainees being held in Israeli jails, according to the Israeli Prison Service.

Many have never been charged and human rights groups, as well as the United Nations, say some have suffered abuse and torture.

"We should be demanding justice," says Van Hollen.

As I leave Zahar Ibrahim's holiday home in al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, he looks drained and alone. The house is sparse. Just a set of weights to fill his time.

All he can do is wait.