I Was Detained by Armed Israeli Settlers Carrying American M4 Rifles': Ro Khanna

US Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said he was detained by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the occupied West Bank this week, an incident he described as an unfiltered look at the human toll of the occupation as he weighs a possible 2028 presidential run. Speaking to Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the California lawmaker said his group's van was surrounded a day earlier by settlers carrying M4 rifles while touring an area of the southern West Bank where residents frequently face settler attacks.

Khanna said the group had gone to inspect a village and school that had been destroyed when armed settlers encircled their vehicle and blocked the road, adding that the settlers called in Israeli forces who he felt sided against the Americans. Cameron Kasky , an aide travelling with Khanna, said the group was held for more than an hour and sought help from the US Embassy in Jerusalem before officers who appeared to be police eventually intervened and allowed them to leave.

The Israeli military confirmed it had received a report of Israeli civilians blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta , a small Palestinian hamlet whose residents were forcibly displaced following violent settler raids after the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. The military said troops and police dispersed the settlers and allowed the vehicles to continue, though it did not directly address Khanna's characterisation of how security forces conducted themselves. Israel's police and the US Embassy in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The visit formed part of a Palestinian led itinerary that Khanna said he deliberately chose over official Israeli engagements, standing overlooking a valley dotted with settler outposts near Turmus Ayya , a village home to thousands of Palestinian American dual nationals. Asked whether the trip had affected his thinking on a presidential bid, Khanna said he was more resolved to consider it after the experience. He is the second Democrat viewed as a potential 2028 contender to visit the region this week, following comments by former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in Tel Aviv on Wednesday about strains in the US Israel relationship.

The episode lands amid a wider shift within the Democratic Party over Israel policy ahead of November's midterm elections, with Israel's favourability among Democratic voters falling from 59 percent in 2018 to 22 percent in May, according to Reuters and Ipsos polling. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have pushed to restrict the roughly 3.8 billion dollars in annual US military assistance to Israel, which includes funding for light weaponry such as M4 rifles. Israel rejects allegations that its conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide or that it operates an apartheid system in the West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians and roughly 500,000 Jewish settlers.