The 16-year-old was detained by Israel over claims he threw rocks at a car. He has since lost around a quarter of his body weight in detention

In the early hours of the morning on 16 February, US citizen Zaher Ibrahim, his wife and two of his children were asleep in their home in the occupied West Bank. They woke to loud banging and shouting outside. When Ibrahim opened the door, he found around 25 to 30 Israeli police officers outside.

They came in, handcuffed and blindfolded his 16-year-old son Mohammed, and took him to Moscovia detention centre in Jerusalem. After a few weeks, in mid-March, he was taken to Megiddo prison, and is now at the notorious Ofer prison, where he was moved to in mid-August. Mohammad was in Palestine on holiday when he was detained. Ibrahim takes his children back regularly, sometimes twice a year, so that they can maintain a connection with their culture and ancestral lands.

Ibrahim said that the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, came to visit him at his home in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli settlers killed Mohammed’s cousin Sayfollah Musallet in July. “He [Mike] came and sat for an hour. And you know, we got a lot of words that he’s gonna do what he can do. Nothing was done," Ibrahim told Middle East Eye from Silwad, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.