Lawmakers Call On Trump Admin To Free Mohammed Ibrahim from Israeli Detention | Palestine Policy Roundup 10.27.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “Right now, there are too many Palestinians in Israeli's prison held without charge. Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim -- a 16-year-old American citizen-- is one of them. For 8 months, he has been held without a trial, has lost 25 pounds, and is suffering in cruel and inhumane conditions. His parents await his return. It is time for our government to bring him home.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “No one should lose a child to violence. I was deeply impacted by the Palestinian American fathers who met with me to talk about their children who were violently killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The US has an obligation to urgently investigate the murders of US citizens Sayfollah Musallet & Tawfic Abdel Jabbar. Their families have my steadfast support and my deepest condolences.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost: “Today, I am demanding the immediate release of Mohammed, who has been in an Israeli prison pre-trial for over eight months and has lost a quarter of his body weight and been denied all outside contact, including with his family, without any public evidence of a crime. Additionally, I continue to call for an independent U.S. investigation into Saif’s murder after he was brutally beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank. This family’s suffering is unimaginable. We must free Mohammed and secure justice.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
⛓️ 27 LAWMAKERS JOIN BICAMERAL LETTER CALLING ON TRUMP ADMIN TO SECURE RELEASE OF MOHAMMED IBRAHIM
27 lawmakers joined a letter, led by Reps. Kathy Castor and Maxwell Frost, and Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, urging the Trump administration to take action to free Mohammed Ibrahim from Israeli military detention.
Mohammed has been detained since the Israeli military raided his family’s home in February. His family has not been able to contact him directly since he was detained due to Israeli restrictions. He is a Palestinian-American US citizen who was15 years old when he was detained by the Israeli military. He has since turned 16 while in Israeli detention. He is also the cousin of Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American US citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in an attack earlier this year.
This letter comes at a critical moment as Mohammed suffers from inhumane conditions imposed by Israeli authorities. In a recently published report, Mohammed described the conditions he has faced while in Israeli detention. He characterizes the meals that he receives as “extremely insufficient” and consisting of very small portions. He has reportedly lost 30 pounds since he was detained as a result of this intentional starvation by Israeli authorities.
In March, Walid Ahmad, another Palestinian child who was detained at the Megiddo Prison–where Mohammed was also held—collapsed and died. An autopsy showed signs of torture, malnutrition, scabies, and denial of medical care. The letter raises the case of Walid and urges the Trump administration to act before the same happens to Mohammed.
Mohammed also reported that he and others have inconsistent access to showers and that children are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor because of overcrowding. This has likely promoted the spread of scabies, which Mohammed suffered from earlier this year.
Mohammed is one of approximately 360 Palestinian children detained by Israel, and that number may be an undercount. The US is complicit in this detention of children by supplying the Israeli military with at least $3.8 billion of weapons every year. Israel is the only country in the world to detain and prosecute children in military courts.
Members of Congress must continue to speak out and demand the release of Mohammed Ibrahim as he faces these inhumane conditions in Israeli detention. Members of Congress should also end all weapons transfers to Israel in response to Israel’s detention of Palestinian children.
IN THE NEWS
⚖️ INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE FINDS ISRAEL’S UNRWA BAN VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW
As Israel continues to violate the ceasefire by obstructing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel has an obligation to allow UN agencies, including UNRWA, to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians there, and that it has an obligation to allow enough aid to meet the needs of Palestinians.
This advisory opinion was requested from the court by the UN General Assembly following Israel’s ban on UNRWA, which was passed by the Knesset one year ago. UNRWA has not been able to bring in supplies since March because of that law, but the agency is still providing medical care and sanitation services for Palestinians in Gaza. UNRWA has 6,000 trucks of aid that have been obstructed from entering Gaza because of Israel’s ban.
The court also found that allegations made by Israeli officials against UNRWA were unsubstantiated. These allegations led more than a dozen countries to suspend their funding of the agency, including the US under the Biden administration. While many of these countries have restored their funding for UNRWA after an independent review found Israel’s claims were unsubstantiated, the US did not. Earlier this year, the Trump administration continued to ban US funding for UNRWA based on these unsubstantiated claims.
Since the advisory opinion was announced, Israeli officials have said that UNRWA will not be allowed to provide assistance in Gaza in direct violation of the court’s opinion. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said that UNRWA will not be allowed to operate in Gaza under the Trump plan for the area. The responses of Israel and the Trump administration to the ICJ ruling show their contempt for and disregard of international law.
Earlier this year, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitor found that nearly all Palestinians in Gaza were suffering from high levels of food insecurity caused by Israel’s near-total blockade on the entry of aid, and that areas in and around Gaza City were experiencing famine. This starvation is deliberate and manufactured by Israel’s policies obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza.
UNRWA is the only agency capable of providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza at the necessary scale. The agency operated thousands of distribution points throughout the area before it was banned from distributing aid.
This obstruction is also in violation of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, a US law governing weapons transfers. Under this law, all weapons transfers to Israel should immediately end in response to this obstruction. Members of Congress should exercise their oversight authority over weapons transfers and bring the US into compliance with the law.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🍎 ISRAEL STILL VIOLATING CEASEFIRE BY RESTRICTING AID, DELISTING NGOs THAT FACILITATE AID DELIVERY
Israel has continued to violate the ceasefire agreement by refusing to allow more aid into Gaza despite its obligation to do so. Last week, the World Food Programme reported that it has been able to get into the area less than half of the amount of aid it aimed to bring into Gaza daily. The WFP reported that this is due to only two crossings being open for the entry of aid into Gaza. It also reported that aid remains concentrated in the south of Gaza, where those open border crossings are located.
Additionally, the Gaza Government Media Office reported last Wednesday that only 986 trucks of aid had entered Gaza since the ceasefire began–far less than the more than 6,000 trucks that should have entered by that time as stipulated in the Trump plan. The World Health Organization also announced that only ten percent of the medical supplies it requested have been allowed to enter Gaza, leaving many Palestinians who are maimed by Israel’s genocidal violence and wracked by disease without the care they need to survive.
As Israel continues to obstruct aid, it has also begun to target the NGOs that have provided aid to Palestinians throughout its genocide there. 41 organizations warned in a joint statement that Israel is denying requests by NGOs to deliver supplies–including tents, food, children's clothes, and more–on the basis that they are not authorized to deliver that aid to Gaza.
This is likely related to new Israeli restrictions that are meant to censor reporting of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and silence advocacy. In March, Israel introduced NGO registration restrictions that effectively allow it to deny registration on vague and politicized criteria.
The new restrictions would also require organizations to submit details about private donors and disclose lists of Palestinian staff. This is not only unlawful, but could also put Palestinian staff at risk of being targeted by Israel.
🫒 ISRAELI SETTLER ATTACKS ON PALESTINIANS IN THE WEST BANK ESCALATE DURING OLIVE HARVEST SEASON
On the Sunday before last, Israeli settlers were captured on video beating Palestinians, including an elderly woman who was beaten unconscious, who were harvesting olives near Turmus Ayya in the West Bank. Jasper Nathaniel, an American journalist who was attempting to visit the town at the time of the attack, reported that he was blocked from reaching the town and that the Israeli military stood aside as settlers attacked him and Yaser Alkem, a Palestinian man with whom he was traveling.
Settler attacks on Palestinians have escalated during the olive harvest season, which began two weeks ago. The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reports that there have been 158 attacks since October 9. Before the attack on Turmus Ayya, Palestinians reported that the Israeli military was preventing them from reaching their olive groves and standing by as settlers attacked them. Settlers are also destroying olive groves even when Palestinians are not actively harvesting them.
These attacks are taking place in one of the most violent years of settler violence against Palestinians in nearly two decades. As of September, there have been more than 1,200 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in 2025, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.