ISRAELI authorities have freed Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim after more than nine months of detention, in a case that advocates say embodies Israeli abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Mohammed’s release on Thursday came after a months-long pressure campaign from United States lawmakers and civil rights groups.
The teenager from Florida was 15 years old in February when he was arrested and taken from his family home in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, near Ramallah.
He turned 16 while being held in Israeli jail, where he drastically lost weight and contracted a skin infection.
“Words can’t describe the immense relief we have as a family right now, to have Mohammed in his parents’ arms,” Mohammed’s uncle Zeyad Kadur said in a statement.
“We couldn’t believe Mohammed was free until his parents wrapped their arms around him and felt him safe.”
Mohammed was arrested over allegations that he threw rocks at Israeli settlers, which he denied. His father, Zaher Ibrahim and other relatives told Al Jazeera earlier this year that Mohammed was blindfolded and beaten during February’s raid on his family home.
Israeli authorities did not allow him to contact his family while in prison, nor did he have any visitation rights. The only updates his loved ones were receiving were through US officials, who were granted access to Mohammed.
Throughout his detention, his family members pleaded with the administration of US President Donald Trump to push for his release — or at least ensure that he had access to adequate food and healthcare.
“Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place,” Kadur said in Thursday’s statement.
“For more than 9 months, our family has been living a horrific and endless nightmare, particularly Mohammed’s mother and father, who haven’t been able to see or touch their youngest child for nearly a year, all while knowing Israeli soldiers were beating him and starving him.”
The pressure campaign to release Mohammed intensified over the past few weeks amid reports that his health was deteriorating.
Last month, 27 US lawmakers joined a letter urging the Trump administration to push Israel to free him.
Individual legislators, most prominently Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, have also been raising awareness for the case and demanding Mohammed’s release.
Thursday’s statement thanked those who pushed for Mohammed’s release and said the family plans to celebrate his freedom by celebrating the teenager’s 16th birthday belatedly, with his mother Muna serving his favourite meal.
“No mother, father, parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or child should ever have to go through what Mohammed just went through,” Kadur wrote.