US Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, has accused the Israeli military of lying about an incident in which armed settlers and Israeli soldiers blocked his convoy for over an hour in the occupied West Bank. Khanna, who was travelling to the village of Zanuta in the South Hebron hills — a rural area where Palestinian residents have been displaced by settler activity — said the ordeal on Wednesday involved settlers brandishing M4 rifles, kicking his vehicle's tyres and mocking his group before Israeli soldiers arrived and continued to block the road. The situation was only resolved after Khanna contacted the US embassy in Israel.

"The IDF is lying," Khanna said in an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday, disputing the Israeli military's claim that soldiers had "quickly dispersed" the civilians and reopened the road. "They had violent settlers detain American citizens, including an American government official. The IDF comes — four soldiers — they tell our translator that they're on the side of the settlers." His account was corroborated by Nadav Weiman, director of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli human rights organisation founded by former soldiers, who was present during the incident. "Armed settlers were the first to arrive, and then, as has become the norm, Israeli soldiers joined them," Weiman wrote. "The settlers were giving the orders, not the other way around."

Khanna also challenged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the settlers involved as a small group of "juvenile delinquents" not representative of the broader settler community. Khanna called for an investigation into the four IDF soldiers present and named Yinon Levi, a settler recorded on video firing what appeared to be a fatal shot that killed Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in the same region roughly a year earlier. Hathaleen had contributed to No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence in the South Hebron hills. No charges have been brought against Levi.

Israeli officials and pro-Israel figures in the United States responded by going on the offensive against Khanna rather than addressing his core allegations. Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Leiter, suggested on CBS News that the congressman had orchestrated a political stunt, insinuating — without evidence — that the timing of the video's release was intended to distract from Khanna's past endorsement of a Senate candidate who later withdrew over sexual misconduct allegations. The host audibly laughed at the theory after noting that Khanna had held the footage until he was safely out of Israeli-controlled territory. Israeli officials told the New York Post that Khanna "came looking for a headline" after reportedly declining to add a meeting with former Israeli hostages to his itinerary.

The incident has drawn attention to the broader pattern of settler violence in the West Bank, which international law — including a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice — considers illegally occupied territory. Israeli settlements there are themselves deemed unlawful under international law. Over the past year, two American citizens were killed in separate settler attacks in the West Bank; no suspects have been charged in either case. Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson broke with many pro-Israel voices by criticising US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee for his silence on the matter, writing that it was "too insulting and humiliating to America." Khanna, for his part, has called for the arrest of the settlers involved and urged members of both parties to demand accountability for the mistreatment of US passport holders.