US Congressman Detained by Armed Israeli Settlers in West Bank
Democratic congressman Ro Khanna said on Saturday his group's van was surrounded by settlers wielding US-made M4 rifles while touring an area where residents face frequent attacks.
Cameron Kasky, an aide who was in the group, said they were held for more than an hour and made appeals to the US embassy in al-Quds for help before a group of what appeared to be police officers intervened.
"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."
The Israeli military said 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 in 2023.
Khanna previously said he was "strongly considering" running for president.
He also said he believed his party's establishment was "clueless about how much of a moral test Palestine, Gaza and Israel have become".
"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 said.
Most countries and the UN regard Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law.
Palestinians view the West Bank, together with Gaza and East Al- Quds, as part of a Palestinian state.
Source: SkyNews
