US Representative Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, says he was surrounded and temporarily detained by armed Israeli settlers while visiting a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on 8 July, in an incident that has drawn renewed attention to conditions in the territory. Khanna described masked settlers carrying US-made M4 rifles blocking the road and preventing his delegation from leaving, before calling in Israeli military forces. "These hoodlums come in with machine guns and they detain us," Khanna said. "And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans." The group was ultimately released after approximately 90 minutes, following appeals to the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the intervention of Israeli police.

The incident occurred at Khirbet Zanuta, a Palestinian hamlet in the southern West Bank whose residents were forced to flee following violent settler raids after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023. Khanna's delegation was touring the site, where settlers had destroyed a school and other structures, as part of a three-day fact-finding visit. An aide, Cameron Kasky, who was present confirmed on social media that Israeli soldiers appeared to side with the settlers rather than the American officials. The Israeli military offered a different framing, saying troops were dispatched after receiving a report of civilians blocking vehicles, and that upon arrival they "dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way," adding that IDF soldiers had not participated in blocking the road.

Khanna expressed frustration not only at the settlers but at what he described as the broader culture enabled by unchecked power. "I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers," he said, adding that he felt powerless during the detention — an experience he said offered a glimpse into the daily reality for Palestinians living under occupation. "Imagine how people feel every day, Palestinians under the occupation, if they could make an American congressperson feel powerless for 90 minutes."

The West Bank — a landlocked territory between Israel and Jordan that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war — is home to approximately 3.3 million Palestinians and more than 700,000 Israeli settlers living in around 160 settlements. The United Nations and the broad international community consider those settlements illegal under international law, though Israel describes the West Bank as disputed territory whose final status is subject to negotiation. Settler violence against Palestinians and foreign visitors has surged in recent years; separately, on the same day Khanna's account became public, the Israeli military said it had detained four suspects who attacked foreign journalists travelling to another West Bank community, Sinjil.

Khanna, one of the most vocal critics of Israeli policy in the US Congress, said the experience deepened his resolve to speak out. He confirmed he is "strongly considering" a presidential run in 2028 and suggested the West Bank visit had hardened that thinking. His account lands amid a broader shift in American Democratic opinion: a recent AP-NORC poll found around 58 percent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel. The incident adds a personal and visceral dimension to that political debate, coming from a sitting member of Congress who was, for 90 minutes, unable to leave a road in the West Bank.