Overview
- Representative Ro Khanna told reporters that on Wednesday his delegation was surrounded and held by Israeli settlers carrying M4 rifles while visiting the destroyed hamlet of Khirbet Zanuta in the southern West Bank.
- An aide, Cameron Kasky, said the group was blocked for more than an hour and sought help from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem before officers who appeared to be police intervened and the delegation was allowed to leave.
- A New York Times photographer travelling with the group and video posted by Khanna corroborate elements of the encounter, showing soldiers, armed civilians and a blocked roadway.
- The Israel Defense Forces said troops were dispatched after reports of civilians blocking vehicles, that soldiers dispersed those obstructing the road, and disputed Khanna’s claim that troops sided with settlers.
- The episode has amplified debate in Washington over rising settler violence, how Israeli forces protect civilians and the oversight of U.S. military aid, and came as police made arrests in a separate attack on journalists in the West Bank.