Overview
- Khanna and his delegation say armed Israeli settlers surrounded their vehicle and held them for more than an hour during a visit to Khirbet Zanuta, with the encounter occurring on Wednesday.
- An aide and a New York Times photographer traveling with the group corroborated the account and the delegation says it called the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, which intervened to secure their release.
- The Israel Defense Forces said troops and police were dispatched, dispersed those blocking the road, and reopened the route, and it denied participating in detaining the visitors.
- Khanna has demanded investigations of the settlers and the soldiers he says sided with them and framed the incident as further reason to press for changes in U.S. policy toward Israeli conduct.
- Reporters and rights groups place the episode in a broader rise in West Bank settler attacks and displacements that has raised diplomatic pressure and renewed debate in Congress over U.S. aid and accountability.