A US congressman was held hostage by armed settlers during a visit to the occupied West Bank, and he indicated that the Israeli army stood by the settlers, describing their actions as “a big mistake.”
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna told Reuters from a Palestinian village on Thursday that settlers carrying M-4 rifles surrounded his car during a tour of an area in the southern West Bank, where Palestinians are frequently attacked by settlers.
The California congressman stated, “We were in a village that Israeli settlers destroyed… They destroyed the school, they destroyed that village, and we were just checking on it.” “The Israeli army was on their side, not the Americans’,” he added. “Then these criminals came with M-4 rifles, which are American-made, and detained us. They blocked the road, then called the Israeli army, and the Israeli army was on their side, not the Americans’.” He wrote on the X platform: “They made a big mistake.”
Cameron Kaski, one of Khanna’s aides who was with the group, said they were held for over an hour and pleaded with the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help.
Another attack on CNN journalists
In another attack earlier on Saturday, settlers assaulted a CNN news crew in the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah.
Settlers surrounded the journalists’ vehicle and damaged it, including puncturing its tires. Jeremy Diamond, the network’s correspondent in occupied Jerusalem, said: “Armed Israeli settlers blocked our path with sticks, stones, and a knife, and attacked us and another group of journalists today in the West Bank.”
He pointed out that the location where they were attacked by the settlers was the same place where Saif al-Din Muslat, an American citizen, was killed exactly one year ago after being beaten to death by terrorist settler gangs.