From the Liveblog of
Saturday, July 11, 2026
US Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna says he was held by armed settlers during West Bank visit
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US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna says he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run.
Speaking with Reuters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna says his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank where residents face frequent settler attacks.
“We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed. They had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” says Khanna, a progressive lawmaker from California in the US House of Representatives.
“And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF, and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna says, referring to the Israeli military.
Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine.
When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention.
They made a huge mistake.
You will be hearing more soon. https://t.co/rZw8bRAn64 pic.twitter.com/4z50Ye4I7K
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 11, 2026
An aide to Khanna who was in the group, Cameron Kasky, says they were held for more than an hour and made appeals to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help. A group of officers who appeared to be police eventually intervened, leading to their release, Kasky says.
The Israeli military says troops and police officers intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian hamlet whose residents were forcibly displaced by violent settler raids following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre on Israel.
“Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” the military says.
Israel Police do not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor does the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.