Rep. Ro Khanna Detained by Israeli Settlers During West Bank Visit
California Congressman Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers for more than an hour while visiting the West Bank, an episode that also involved members of the Israel Defense Forces, according to the lawmaker’s account. Khanna said IDF personnel spoke with the settlers and moved a vehicle to block the road during the incident.
The encounter was first reported by The New York Times, and a spokesperson for Khanna confirmed the details of the Times’ reporting to CBS News. A photojournalist from the Times also witnessed the interaction, according to the newspaper.
IDF Response
When asked about Khanna’s allegations, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the military had received a report of Israeli civilians “unlawfully blocking the vehicles of foreign nationals and members of the media.” The IDF said troops “were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road.”
The IDF also said its soldiers “did not take part in blocking the road,” and that the “identity of the armed individual is currently under review.”
The military’s statement appears to diverge from Khanna’s account in at least one respect: the congressman said IDF members moved a car to block the road, while the IDF insists its soldiers did not participate in blocking it and instead dispersed the settlers. The reference to an “armed individual” suggests at least one settler present was carrying a weapon, though the IDF did not specify whether that person was a settler or otherwise.
A Pattern of Congressional Visits to the West Bank
Khanna’s detention comes amid a steady stream of visits to the West Bank by U.S. politicians from both parties since the Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the territory in September 2025 and dined with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon toured the region in August 2025.
Khanna, a progressive Democrat who has been critical of Israeli government policies, has previously called for conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel. His decision to visit the West Bank fits a broader pattern of Democratic lawmakers traveling to the region to observe conditions on the ground firsthand, often meeting with Palestinian civic leaders and Israeli human rights organizations.
May 2025 Diplomatic Incident
The incident involving Khanna is not the first time foreign officials have faced danger while visiting the West Bank during the current conflict. In May 2025, IDF troops fired what they described as “warning shots” near a delegation of diplomats that included representatives from the European Union, Japan, and Russia. Several nations that have supported Israel during the Gaza war criticized the country following that episode.
The IDF said the shots were fired after the diplomatic group wandered off an approved route and entered a restricted area. The incident drew diplomatic protests from multiple governments and underscored the heightened tensions surrounding foreign visits to the occupied territory.
Settler Violence and West Bank Conditions Since October 7
The United Nations reported in May that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Gaza war began. CBS News has spoken with Palestinian residents and Israeli activists in the West Bank who say violent attacks by Israeli settlers have increased significantly since the conflict started, including assaults that have driven Palestinians from their land. Israel has also continued to expand its settlements in the territory during this period.
The allegation that Khanna was detained by settlers — and that IDF forces may have facilitated rather than immediately intervened against the blockade — touches on a long-running grievance raised by Palestinian residents and human rights organizations. Critics have repeatedly accused Israeli security forces of failing to protect Palestinians from settler violence, and in some cases of actively collaborating with settlers during confrontations.
Accountability for Settler Violence
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians in the West Bank are rarely penalized, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din. The organization reported that indictments were filed in fewer than 1% of cases stemming from 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing by soldiers between 2016 and 2024.
That statistic has been cited repeatedly by lawmakers and advocates pressing for greater accountability, and it provides important context for understanding why a member of Congress being detained by settlers — even briefly — would draw significant attention. If the system for addressing complaints against soldiers produces indictments in under 1% of cases, the likelihood of consequences for settlers who block or detain foreign nationals, including a sitting U.S. congressman, may be similarly limited.
The Settlements: Scale and Demographics
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and which the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. According to the source material, approximately 15% of the settlers are Americans.
The presence of American citizens among the settler population adds a layer of complexity to U.S.-Israel relations, particularly when members of Congress visit the region and encounter settler activity. It also means that U.S. policymakers are not merely observing a foreign dispute from a distance — American citizens are directly participating in the settlement enterprise, which the international community widely considers illegal.
International Legal Status and Sanctions
The United Nations considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, and Israel has faced sustained international criticism over the actions of settlers in the territory. In a notable diplomatic development, five long-time U.S. allies jointly imposed sanctions on two senior Israeli officials whom they accused of “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the sanctions and called for their reversal, signaling a tension between the U.S. government’s position and those of some of its closest partners. The fact that five allied nations acted jointly — rather than individually — suggests a coordinated effort to apply pressure on Israel over settler violence, and Rubio’s pushback indicates the U.S. is prepared to shield Israeli officials from such measures even when imposed by friendly governments.
What Khanna’s Incident Reveals
While a single encounter involving one congressman does not, on its own, prove systemic patterns, the Khanna incident is significant for several reasons. First, it involved a sitting member of the United States Congress — not an ordinary foreign national or journalist — being detained by private citizens for over an hour. Second, the involvement of the IDF, even in the limited capacity described by the military’s own statement, raises questions about the relationship between settlers and security forces in the West Bank. Third, it occurred against a backdrop of escalating settler violence, a growing death toll among Palestinians in the territory, and an international community increasingly willing to impose consequences on Israeli officials.
The IDF’s statement that it “quickly dispersed” the settlers and reopened the road suggests the military does recognize the settlers’ actions as unlawful. But Khanna’s account that IDF personnel moved a car to block the road — if accurate — would complicate the narrative of the military as a neutral intervening force. The discrepancy between the two accounts is likely to be a focus of further reporting.
For Khanna specifically, the incident may reinforce his long-standing arguments about the need for greater U.S. scrutiny of Israeli conduct in the occupied territories. For the broader Congress, it raises the question of whether future delegations to the West Bank will face similar risks, and whether the U.S. government will take additional steps to ensure the safety of its lawmakers and citizens in a territory where settler violence has become, by multiple accounts, a defining feature of daily life.