US lawmaker says armed settlers detained his group in the occupied West Bank

A Democratic lawmaker from the United States says he and members of his tour group were detained by armed settlers during a trip in the occupied West Bank. Ro Khanna said the group was stopped near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian hamlet, and that the incident lasted for more than an hour. He also said the Israeli military later intervened, but that soldiers sided with the settlers and continued the detention.

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Khanna said on social media that the settlers were carrying rifles and that the Israeli army made a "huge mistake" by backing them. In comments to reporters, he said the men who stopped the group were "hoodlums" with machine guns and that they blocked the road before calling the military. An aide travelling with him said the group appealed to the US embassy in Jerusalem for help while they were being held.

The aide said the group was eventually released after officers who appeared to be police intervened. The Israeli military said troops and police responded after receiving a report that settlers were blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta. That location has become a symbol of the wider tensions in the area, after residents were forcibly displaced by violent settler raids, according to the supporting material.

The incident has renewed attention on settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which rights groups say has intensified since the war in Gaza began nearly three years ago. The episode also carries diplomatic weight because Khanna is a sitting US lawmaker and has said the settlers were armed with US-made assault rifles. He said the experience made him acutely aware of being brown, and he criticised what he described as the conduct of young soldiers funded by US tax dollars.

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The remarks add to scrutiny of how Israeli authorities respond to settler attacks and road blockages in Palestinian areas. The broader issue of settler violence has drawn increasing international attention in recent months. The supplied material says several Western countries sanctioned networks linked to settler violence last month, while Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

Rights groups have also argued that settlers have been emboldened by the Israeli government, a claim that remains politically contested but is central to the current debate. Khanna, who is considering a run for the US presidency in 2028, said he would release more details in the coming days. It remains unclear exactly how the detention began, how many settlers were involved, and what role each Israeli officer played in ending it.

The key questions now are whether there will be any official US response, whether Israeli authorities will investigate the conduct described, and whether the incident will intensify pressure over settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

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