Ro Khanna Says Armed Settlers Detained Him in the West Bank; IDF Denies Blocking the Road

What Khanna says happened

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., says he and his congressional delegation were surrounded and held for more than an hour by armed Israeli settlers on Wednesday, July 8, near the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta in the southern West Bank. His office told The New York Times, which first reported the incident, that the settlers carried American-made M4 rifles.

Khanna says the group had been visiting an area settlers had destroyed, including a school, when masked men blocked their van. He says Israeli Defense Forces soldiers who arrived acted in a friendly manner toward the settlers and also blocked the delegation's exit. The group was released only after Israeli police and the American Embassy in Jerusalem got involved, according to Khanna's office.

"If they will do this to an American congressman, imagine what is happening to Palestinian families who are just trying to live," Khanna said in a statement carried by Fox News Digital and the Los Angeles Times. He also thanked David Brownstein of the American embassy for helping "rescue" the group and said he expects Israel to prosecute the settlers and soldiers involved.

What the IDF says

The Israeli military disputes the framing that its own troops did anything wrong. In a statement given to CBS News, PBS and other outlets, the IDF said it received a report of "Israeli civilians unlawfully blocking the vehicles of foreign nationals and members of the media," dispatched troops who "quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road." The IDF said its soldiers "did not take part in blocking the road" and that the identity of the armed individual is currently under review.

Khanna's account that soldiers sided with the settlers and blocked the group themselves contradicts the IDF statement. Neither side has released video or additional documentation settling that specific dispute. A New York Times photographer present for the incident corroborated that the confrontation occurred, according to PBS and the LA Times, which lends outside weight to the basic timeline even where the two sides disagree on the soldiers' role.

Broader pattern that same week

The Khanna incident wasn't isolated. The Israeli military said Saturday it detained four suspects for attacking foreign journalists traveling to Sinjil, another West Bank town, using clubs and knives to block and damage a vehicle, according to PBS. CNN said one of its own crews was among the journalists attacked.

CBS News reported that Israeli rights group Yesh Din found soldiers accused of harming Palestinians in the West Bank were indicted in fewer than 1% of 2,427 complaints filed between 2016 and 2024. The United Nations says more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Gaza war began in October 2023, per CBS. More than 700,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements the U.N. considers illegal, about 15% of them American citizens, CBS reported.

The political angle is real, and worth stating plainly

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., dismissed the whole episode on X as a publicity stunt: "Sounds like another plea for publicity. Anything to get in front of the camera. Why else would you be there? It isn't your country." Khanna is openly exploring a 2028 presidential run, he sent a fundraising email tied to the incident the same day he posted about it publicly, and a West Bank tour is an unusual choice compared to the traditional bipartisan Israel visit taken by lawmakers like House Speaker Mike Johnson, who dined with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2025.

Murphy's skepticism about motive doesn't answer the underlying factual dispute: did armed men actually block an American congressional delegation for over an hour, and did IDF soldiers help or hinder them? The NYT photographer's presence and the IDF's own acknowledgment that armed civilians blocked a road are difficult to dismiss as pure theater, even if Khanna's political timing invites scrutiny.

This comes as Democratic views on Israel are shifting fast. An AP-NORC poll found 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is "too supportive" of Israel, and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, also weighing a 2028 run, recently called Israel a "territorial pariah" in a speech in Tel Aviv, according to PBS.

The IDF says the identity of the armed individual who blocked the road is still under review. Whether that review leads to any charge, and whether Israel opens the prosecution Khanna is demanding against both the settlers and the soldiers involved, will determine whether this story yields concrete accountability.