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A high-profile progressive Democratic U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna was held at gunpoint by armed Israeli settlers wielding American-made firearms during a fact-finding visit to a displaced Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, an incident that has reignited scrutiny of U.S. military support for Israel and shifting partisan attitudes toward the Israeli government.

Khanna, who represents a California district, shared the details of his detention in a public post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, July 11, 2026. “Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” he wrote. “When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.”

The lawmaker’s visit was centered on Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian Bedouin community that has been systematically displaced by repeated violent attacks from Israeli settlers. According to on-the-ground accounts, settlers have driven out most residents through a campaign of intimidation and property destruction: they have burned the local school, looted private homes, assaulted local people with rifle butts and stones, smashed residential windows and community solar panels, drained local water storage tanks, and dumped raw sewage onto agricultural land that local families depend on for livelihoods.

Speaking to Reuters after his release, Khanna described the sequence of events: “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it. And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.”

Cameron Kasky, an aide who was part of Khanna’s traveling delegation, confirmed that the group was held for more than an hour. Kasky added that during their detention, the delegation made repeated attempts to contact the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to request official assistance. It was ultimately Israeli police, not the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), that stepped in to secure the group’s release, according to Kasky.

As of now, there is no public confirmation of whether U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a known hardline supporter of Israeli settlement expansion, chose to intervene on the delegation’s behalf or issue any public criticism of the incident. The IDF has issued a muted public response, acknowledging that settlers blocked vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta but claiming its own forces were responsible for de-escalating the confrontation – a claim that contradicts accounts from Khanna and his delegation.

The incident draws particular attention to the longstanding U.S. military aid package to Israel, which provides $3.8 billion in annual funding for Israeli military equipment – including the M4 rifles that the settlers used to detain the congressional delegation. This connection comes at a time of rapidly shifting public opinion within the U.S. Democratic Party, where support for Israel has fallen sharply amid growing public awareness of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its discriminatory apartheid policies in the occupied West Bank.

Recent polling from Reuters/Ipsos underscores this shift: Israel’s favorability rating among Democratic voters dropped from 59% in 2018 to just 22% by May 2026, reflecting a growing backlash against continued unconditioned U.S. military support for the Israeli government amid widespread allegations of human rights abuses against Palestinian people.

Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have taken a sharp turn after Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei publicly pledged retribution for the death of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. In a formal written statement released to Iranian media via the supreme leader’s official Telegram channel Saturday, Mojtaba Khamenei framed vengeance for his father’s killing as an unnegotiable national mandate, stating that freedom-aligned people across the globe would soon begin executing key parts of the revenge campaign.

The pledge comes one day after state-led funeral commemorations for the former supreme leader concluded, wrapping up a week of cross-national memorial events held across Iran and neighboring Iraq. Ali Khamenei was laid to rest Friday at the Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in global Shia Islam. The funeral procession first launched a week prior in the Iranian capital Tehran and the holy city of Qom, before commemorations extended to major Iraqi Shia centers Najaf and Karbala.

In his statement, the new supreme leader expanded his vow of revenge beyond his father’s killing, promising to hold responsible parties accountable for the deaths of a martyred commander and all Iranians killed in the two most recent regional conflicts. He emphasized that the campaign of accountability is not contingent on his personal participation or the presence of other senior Iranian officials, stressing that retribution is unavoidable and that Iranian sympathizers across the world would contribute to fulfilling the mission. “The killers of the late leader should know that they will be held accountable for their crimes,” Mojtaba Khamenei said.

Since taking office after his father’s assassination, the new supreme leader has not made any public appearances. Multiple unconfirmed reports indicate he was wounded in the same airstrike that killed Ali Khamenei. In a report citing senior anonymous sources based in Tehran, global news agency Reuters confirmed that Mojtaba Khamenei is currently recovering from his injuries, but has not regained enough strength to appear before the public. The report added that Iranian security officials have also intentionally restricted his public exposure, amid ongoing credible threats of follow-up targeted attacks against the country’s new leadership.

The latest statement from Tehran comes at a moment of already extreme friction between the United States and Iran, with a recently agreed temporary ceasefire outlined in last month’s memorandum of understanding rapidly falling apart. Iranian officials confirmed that US airstrikes carried out across six Iranian cities earlier this week killed 17 people and wounded 115 more. On Friday, one day before Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement, the US Treasury Department announced a new round of harsh economic sanctions targeting a key financial backer of the new Iranian supreme leader, alongside 13 additional individuals and entities with ties to the Iranian government.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a sharp rebuke of the US actions, accusing Washington of deliberately violating the terms of the interim ceasefire agreement. Araghchi argued that the recent airstrikes and new sanctions prove the United States has abandoned its previously established diplomatic commitments, further eroding trust between the two long-adversarial nations.

As the race to determine the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party — and the country’s next prime minister — enters its final phase, leading contender Andy Burnham has issued a rare public apology for his party’s flawed initial response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, drawing measured praise from pro-Palestine groups and fellow Labour figures who are now pushing for tangible policy change to match his words.

Burnham, who is widely tipped to secure the leadership in the upcoming vote this month, broke ranks with earlier party messaging earlier this week to acknowledge widespread public anger over Labour’s early handling of the Gaza crisis. “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” he said in his public remarks.

Describing the catastrophic “unbearable suffering” unfolding across Gaza as “a scar on our collective conscience”, Burnham pulled no punches in criticizing Israel’s decades-long expanding occupation of Palestinian territories. “We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” he added.

The apology has drawn a mostly positive early reaction from within Labour’s own ranks. Wes Streeting, former UK health secretary, called Burnham’s comments “extremely welcome”, while Norwich South MP Clive Lewis framed the statement as “an important and much-needed first step”. Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq echoed that sentiment, noting “High time this is acknowledged and glad something will be done about it.” The Labour Muslim Network, an influential group representing Muslim party members, described the intervention on X (formerly Twitter) as “A huge and important intervention from the potential next leader of the Labour party.”

Burnham, a former Greater Manchester mayor who returned to Parliament last month via a Makerfield by-election, took care to acknowledge steps already taken by Keir Starmer’s outgoing Labour government, including its formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, sanctions targeting far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, and a ban on the transfer of British-made bombs and ammunition to Israel. “We have taken some important steps,” he said. “But let’s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire. And we must now do more to strengthen our approach.”

He went on to warn that ongoing Israeli actions are undermining any path to a lasting two-state solution, pointing to repeated violations of existing ceasefire agreements and a sharp surge in violent extremist settler attacks across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. “Netanyahu’s government is clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible,” he said. If elected leader, Burnham pledged to explore further sanctions against violent Israeli settlers and implement new restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.

Notably, Burnham stopped short of formally endorsing the growing global consensus that Israel’s campaign amounts to genocide, arguing that such a designation is a matter for international judicial bodies rather than elected politicians. “There is increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed,” he said, adding “it was for international courts, and not politicians, to decide.”

That stance has drawn pushback from major pro-Palestine advocacy groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), one of the UK’s largest pro-Palestine activist organizations, which warned that words alone are not enough and demanded immediate decisive action to follow the apology. The group pointed out that a United Nations commission of inquiry, alongside multiple independent human rights organizations and legal experts, already confirmed last month that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza.

“You have stated that this is something for the international courts to decide, but the Genocide Convention requires all states – including Britain – to take action to prevent genocide as soon as they become aware there is a serious risk of it,” the PSC wrote in an open letter to Burnham. The group also criticized the UK’s historical complicity in Israeli actions, noting the country has long actively supported Israeli policies and “willfully ignoring rulings of the courts”, including the International Court of Justice’s landmark 2004 ruling that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful, and that all third-party states must end any actions that aid or abet Israeli violations of international law.

The PSC laid out clear demands for Burnham: formally recognize the UN commission’s genocide finding, adopt the 2025 Labour Party conference policy mandating a full arms embargo on Israel and broad sanctions, ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements and any trade that props up the Israeli occupation, and roll back the use of what the group calls “authoritarian” public order and anti-terror laws to crack down on peaceful pro-Palestine protests.

Currently, the United Nations, dozens of major human rights organizations, and hundreds of independent human rights experts have formally classified Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide. The offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in the enclave to date, according to latest public health counts from Gazan authorities.

Escalating tensions between the United States and Iran have reached a new boiling point after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary threat of overwhelming military retaliation against Tehran, following Israeli intelligence warnings of an alleged plot to assassinate him. The dramatic escalation comes as a previously Pakistan-brokered ceasefire between the two nations teeters on collapse, marked by new airstrikes, fresh sanctions, and dueling accusations of broken commitments.

According to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous intelligence sources, Israeli security agencies recently shared new details of what they described as a “specific” and “active” Iranian plan to target Trump with Washington. CNN further confirmed that the intelligence prompted elevated security precautions, leading the U.S. Secret Service to request a last-minute change to Trump’s travel itinerary following the NATO summit held in Washington D.C.. Trump ultimately departed the region aboard an older aircraft, while his newer, Qatari-donated jet was sent separately to his next destination in the United Kingdom, a shift directly tied to the newly uncovered threat.

In a fiery post shared on his Truth Social platform, Trump doubled down on the warnings, announcing that 1,000 American missiles are already locked and targeted at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more waiting to be deployed immediately should Tehran move forward with the alleged plot. “Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing, and able – for a one year period of time, subject to extension – to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!” the post read.

The threatening rhetoric comes amid a rapidly unraveling interim truce agreed through a Pakistan-brokered memorandum of understanding just one month prior. Earlier this week, the U.S. launched two consecutive nights of airstrikes across six Iranian cities, which Iranian officials say killed 17 people and wounded another 115. On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new round of sanctions targeting Mojtaba Khamenei, a key financier linked to Iran’s supreme leader, alongside 13 additional individuals and entities – a move that directly violates the terms of the interim agreement, according to Iranian officials.

Paragraph 9 of the signed MoU explicitly prohibits the U.S. from imposing new sanctions or deploying additional military forces to the region, while allowing Iran to maintain its current nuclear program status. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to social media platform X to condemn the actions, noting that Iran has strictly upheld its end of the agreement while Washington has flagrantly violated its commitments. “Iran has so far kept its word, unlike the so-called US Treasury Secretary who is violating Para 9 of the MoU,” Araghchi wrote, adding that “there can only be mutual compliance” moving forward.

Even amid the open hostilities, Trump confirmed that negotiations toward a final comprehensive peace agreement with Iran will continue, despite declaring the month-old ceasefire “over.” The outbreak of renewed violence was sparked by attacks on Qatari and Saudi oil tankers near the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, which triggered the U.S. airstrikes and subsequent Iranian missile and drone strikes on U.S.-affiliated military sites across the Middle East.

Trump stated on social media that Iran itself requested that talks continue, and the U.S. has agreed to move forward with negotiations, even as the truce is no longer in effect. However, Iranian lead negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf rejected any claims that Tehran would surrender to U.S. pressure, stressing that Iran has maintained full military preparedness in case Washington fully abandons the interim agreement. “We have never stopped preparing to defend our country, and if at any moment the Americans betray the understanding, we are ready for full-scale defence,” Ghalibaf said. “Ending the war is a priority for the countries of the world, but everyone should know that this conflict will never end with Iran’s surrender.”

Pakistan, which has served as the primary mediator for the talks between Washington and Tehran, has stepped in to urge de-escalation. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, where he emphasized the urgent need for both parties to uphold the terms of the MoU and work to restore regional stability.

Senior U.S. officials speaking to CBS News offered a nuanced perspective on the recent tanker attacks, noting that Iranian representatives have attributed the assaults to rogue hardline factions that seek to derail diplomatic negotiations. “They came back to the table and said, ‘We screwed up. We made a mistake. Let’s keep talking,’” one unnamed senior official told the network.

This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, which provides independent, in-depth coverage of the Middle East, North Africa, and surrounding regions.