Washington, DC – Mohammed Ibrahim is just a normal kid who loves his family and likes photography, his relatives say.

But the Palestinian American teenager spent his 16th birthday this past March in an Israeli jail, despite protests pleading for his release.

His father, Zaher Ibrahim, believes the United States government can free Mohammed and end his ordeal with a single phone call, given the billions of dollars in military aid it sends Israel each year.

“But we’re nothing to them,” Zaher told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

Zaher and other family members said that, while imprisoned, Mohammed has been losing weight and suffering from a skin infection. While US officials have visited the teenager, Israeli authorities have otherwise denied him contact with the outside world.

The teenager’s

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