A prominent Democratic US lawmaker from California, Ro Khanna, said Saturday he was "detained" by armed Israeli settlers along with other Americans during a visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- and said the military was complicit in the incident.
"Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine," Khanna said in a post on X.
When the Israeli military arrived at the scene, he added, "they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake."
Footage and accounts provided to The New York Times by Khanna and his team shows a group of armed men blocking the road outside a small village in the southern West Bank and swearing at them in Hebrew and Arabic.
Khanna told the Times that when the Israeli Defense Forces arrived at the scene, the soldiers spoke to the settlers and subsequently blocked the road themselves when the settlers left.
After calls to the US embassy and Israeli police, Khanna said he was allowed to pass.
The IDF did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The United States is a staunch ally of Israel, but some lawmakers, especially Democrats, have vehemently criticized Israel's military offensive in Gaza, and more generally the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
