US congressman detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles in West Bank

US Congressman Ro Khanna says he was detained by illegal Jewish settlers armed with US-made rifles during a visit to the occupied West Bank this week.

Speaking to Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, Khanna said his delegation’s van was surrounded by settlers carrying M4 rifles a day earlier while touring an area of the southern West Bank.

"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," Khanna said.

"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," he said, referring to the Israeli military.

An aide to Khanna who was in the group, Cameron Kasky, said they were held for more than an hour before appealing to the US embassy in al-Quds for assistance. He said officers who appeared to be police eventually intervened, allowing the group to continue its journey.

Khanna, a progressive Democratic congressman from California who is weighing a 2028 presidential bid, said he deliberately limited his trip to the occupied West Bank to gain “an unfiltered view of territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.”

"If you're unwilling to speak up for Palestinian human rights, if you're unwilling to speak up against the genocide in Gaza, the apartheid in the West Bank, then you are morally compromised," he added.

Khanna said the visit had left him "more resolved to consider" running for president.

He is the second Democrat considering a White House bid to visit the region this week. In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to former president Barack Obama, said Israeli violence against Palestinians was eroding support for the US-Israeli alliance.

Support for the Israeli regime among Democrats fell from 59% in 2018 to 22% in May, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

While Israel has long enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are now calling for an end to the $3.8 billion in annual US military aid, which includes funding for weapons systems such as M4 rifles and missile interceptors used by Israel.

Most countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on transferring an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory.

Illegal Israeli settlers assault Palestinian workers, destroy farm in occupied West Bank

Illegal Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian municipal workers south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and destroyed a farm northwest of the city.

Palestinians regard the West Bank, together with Gaza and East al-Quds, as integral parts of a future independent Palestinian state.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has described Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank as a "silent war" that has largely escaped global scrutiny.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, illegal settlers carried out 3,488 attacks across the occupied West Bank during the first half of the year, killing at least 17 Palestinians.

Since October 2023, more than 1,179 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territory, with nearly a quarter of them being children, according to UNRWA.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council have adopted numerous resolutions declaring Israel's settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory illegal under international law.

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