By Elsie Kamsiyochi
U.S. Representative Ro Khanna has said that he and members of his delegation were detained by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the occupied West Bank, an incident that has drawn renewed attention to the deteriorating security situation in the territory and intensified political debate in the United States over Washington’s relationship with Israel.
Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California who is widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2028 U.S. presidential election, described the encounter as one of the most disturbing moments of his three-day visit to the Palestinian territories. He said the experience reinforced his belief that the humanitarian crisis affecting Palestinians has become one of the defining moral and political issues facing the Democratic Party.
According to Khanna, the incident occurred while his delegation was touring a Palestinian village in the southern West Bank that had reportedly suffered extensive damage following repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. The group had traveled there to witness firsthand the conditions faced by Palestinian residents and to better understand the realities on the ground.
Khanna said their vehicle was surrounded by Israeli settlers carrying U.S.-made M4 rifles, who blocked the road and prevented the delegation from leaving the area. He alleged that the settlers detained the group for more than an hour while they waited for Israeli security forces to arrive.
“We were simply observing the destruction left behind in the village,” Khanna said, adding that the settlers appeared aggressively and prevented them from continuing their journey.
A member of Khanna’s delegation, Cameron Kasky, said the group contacted the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem seeking assistance while they remained stranded. According to Kasky, officers believed to be Israeli police eventually arrived, dispersed the settlers and allowed the delegation to continue.
The Israeli military confirmed that security forces responded after receiving reports that Israeli civilians were blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian community whose residents were displaced following violent settler attacks after the Hamas assault on Israel in 2023. The military said troops and police officers dispersed the settlers and reopened the road, allowing the vehicles to proceed.
Israeli police did not immediately comment on the incident, and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem also did not publicly respond.
Khanna’s visit comes at a politically significant moment in the United States, where divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank have become increasingly pronounced. The California lawmaker is the second Democrat considering a 2028 presidential campaign to visit the region this week. Earlier, former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also traveled to Israel and warned that Israeli government policies toward Palestinians risk weakening long-standing bipartisan American support.
When asked whether he intends to run for president in 2028, Khanna said he is seriously considering entering the race and suggested that his experiences during the trip had strengthened his resolve.
The congressman said he deliberately chose to spend his visit entirely in the West Bank with Palestinian-led organizations rather than divide his time between Israeli and Palestinian communities. He argued that doing so gave him what he described as an unfiltered view of life under Israeli occupation.
Standing near Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town with a large population of Palestinian-Americans, Khanna said many Democratic leaders underestimate how deeply the conflict now resonates with younger voters and progressive activists. He described the situation in Gaza and the West Bank as a defining moral challenge for his party.
Khanna also repeated his criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and conditions in the West Bank, saying American leaders should be willing to speak openly about Palestinian human rights. Israel strongly rejects accusations that it has committed genocide in Gaza or operates an apartheid system in the West Bank, maintaining that its military operations are conducted in self-defense and that its policies comply with its security needs.
The issue has become increasingly contentious within American politics. While U.S. support for Israel has traditionally enjoyed broad bipartisan backing, growing numbers of Democratic lawmakers are questioning whether continued military assistance should remain unconditional. Israel currently receives approximately $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid, funding that supports a wide range of defense equipment, including small arms and advanced missile defense systems.
Recent polling has reflected this shift in public opinion, with Democratic support for Israel declining significantly over the past several years as the wars in Gaza and regional tensions have intensified. At the same time, support among Republican voters has remained comparatively strong, although some conservative voices have also questioned continued foreign military assistance.
The broader dispute over the West Bank remains one of the world’s longest-running geopolitical conflicts. Most countries, along with the United Nations, consider Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal under international law. Israel disputes that interpretation, arguing that the territory is disputed rather than occupied and citing the historical and religious ties of the Jewish people to the area. Palestinians continue to seek the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza as the basis of a future independent Palestinian state.
Khanna’s visit and the reported confrontation with armed settlers are likely to add further scrutiny to U.S. policy toward Israel at a time when the conflict is increasingly shaping American domestic politics ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and the emerging race for the White House in 2028.
Source: Reuters
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