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

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met Palestinian residents in Turmus Ayya on Saturday, including families of US citizens killed by Israeli settlers. The visit came as residents of the West Bank town described repeated attacks by militant settlers and said they could not stop them from entering and damaging homes.

Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, is surrounded by several Israeli settlements. Mayor Nawwaf Zaghoul said residents planned to ask Huckabee for help with their safety and security, describing the attacks as constant. He said roughly 80 percent of the town’s 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 before the meeting. Huckabee, a Baptist minister and longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, has called for violent settlers to be prosecuted. He has also said he believes those attackers represent only a minority of the wider settler population, which the article puts at about 750,000.

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We have many issues that we will address.

Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank are rarely prosecuted. Netanyahu’s government has overseen an expansion of settlements across the territory, further entrenching Israeli control over land Palestinians seek for a future state.

Huckabee visited Taybeh, one of the few remaining Christian villages in the West Bank, in June 2025 after a church there was vandalized. He called the desecration of a place of worship an act of terror and a crime. He refers to the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, a term used by Israel’s government but not by the US government. He has also visited Shiloh, a settlement near Turmus Ayya, at least twice since 2025.

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