Democratic US Rep. Ro Khanna said he was arrested by Israeli settlers armed with American-made rifles during a visit to the West Bank this week, offering a comprehensive look at the human toll of the Israeli occupation as it prepares to run in the 2028 presidential election.
Speaking to reporters Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his group’s truck was surrounded by settlers carrying M4 rifles the day before while touring a part of the southern West Bank where residents face frequent settler attacks.
“We were in a village that had been destroyed by Israeli settlers, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” said Khanna, a progressive representative from California in the US House of Representatives.
“And these bad guys come with automatic rifles – the M4, which is an American-made machine gun – and they arrest us. They block the road. Then they call the Israeli army and the Israeli army is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna said, referring to the Israeli army.
Cameron Caskey, an aide to Khanna who was among the group, said they were detained for more than an hour and appealed to the US embassy in Jerusalem for help. A group of officers, who appeared to be police, eventually intervened, leading to their release, Caskey said.
The Israeli military said troops and police officers intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village whose residents were forcibly displaced due to violent settler raids following the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
