US ambassador visits Palestinian town amid rise in West Bank settler violence

In Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town near Ramallah surrounded by Israeli settlements, residents say militant settlers enter the town, damage homes and carry out attacks with little restraint. On Saturday, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived to meet Palestinians, including families of US citizens killed by settlers.

“We have many issues that we will address,” Mayor Nawwaf Zaghoul told reporters before the meeting. He said residents would ask Huckabee to help secure their safety, describing the attacks as constant. Zaghoul said about 80% of the town’s roughly 3,000 residents were Palestinian Americans.

“We are hoping that (the ambassador) will do something for us regarding these lawless settlers,” resident Sameer Hazama said ahead of the talks. Several settlements have been established around Turmus Ayya, and residents say they cannot stop settlers from entering the town or damaging their homes.

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We have many issues that we will address

Huckabee has long supported Israeli settlements, but he has also called for violent settlers to face prosecution. He has said such attackers represent only a minority of the wider settler population, estimated in the article at about 750,000. Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank are rarely prosecuted, the article says.

Huckabee previously visited Taybeh, one of the few remaining Christian villages in the West Bank, after a church there was vandalised in June 2025. He called the desecration of a place of worship an act of terror and a crime. Israel’s government has continued expanding settlements across the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state. The United Nations and most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law, while Israel says the land is disputed rather than occupied.

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We are hoping that (the ambassador) will do something for us regarding these lawless settlers