The U.S. Ambassador to Israel on Saturday (September 5, 2026) called for “severe consequences” to stop violence in the occupied West Bank as he met with Palestinians on Saturday (September 5), including the families ⁠of U.S. citizens killed by Israeli settlers, in a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank that has been the target of repeated settler attacks.

“Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror. When people do it, they should expect that they will have severe consequences,” Mike Huckabee told reporters as he visited the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, which has a high number of U.S. citizens. However, he declined to criticise Israel.

Settler violence in the ‌West Bank has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, took office in ‌late 2022.

Several settlements have been established around Turmus Ayya, the Palestinian town ‌near ⁠Ramallah that Huckabee was visiting on Saturday. Its residents say ⁠that harassment by militant Israeli settlers is common and that they are unable to stop them from entering the town and damaging their homes.

“We have many issues that we will address,” ​Nawwaf Zaghoul, the town’s mayor, told ‌reporters ahead of the meeting, describing what he said were constant attacks by settlers.

He said that the town’s residents would be asking the Ambassador to help secure their safety and security. About 80% of the town’s ‌roughly 3,000 residents were Palestinian Americans, he said.

Mr. Huckabee, a Baptist minister ​and longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, has called for violent settlers to be prosecuted, while saying he believes their actions represent ⁠a minority of the wider settler community, which numbers around 750,000. Israeli settlers accused of carrying out attacks in the West Bank targeting Palestinians are rarely prosecuted.

“We ‌are hoping that [the ambassador] will do something for us regarding these lawless settlers,” Turmus Ayya resident Sameer Hazama said ahead of the meeting with the ambassador.

Mr. Huckabee visited Taybeh, one of the only Christian villages remaining in the West Bank, in June 2025 after a church there was vandalised. He said at the time that the desecration of a place of worship was ‌an act of terror and a crime.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has also overseen an expansion of settlements ​across the West Bank, further entrenching Israeli control over territory that Palestinians seek for a future state.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank ⁠are illegal under international law, with the United Nations and most countries deeming the ⁠territory to be occupied. Israel’s government says that the land is disputed, not occupied.

Mr. Huckabee refers to the West Bank by its ‌biblical name, Judea and Samaria, a term used by the Israeli government but not adopted by the U.S. government. He has visited Shiloh, a settlement ​near Turmus Ayya, at least twice since 2025.

(With inputs from AFP and Reuters.)

Israel’s military on Sunday (August 9, 2026) closed the West Bank village ​of Taybeh to non-residents, saying it aimed to prevent growing ‌attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers across the West ​Bank.

The order, the military said, only ⁠applies to Israelis and not to Palestinians. A spokesperson said turning Taybeh into a closed military zone was “due to some violent attacks ‌by Israelis in the region.”

“Upon receiving any report of violations of the order, IDF soldiers are dispatched ‌to the area and operate to disperse the gatherings ‌and ⁠detain suspects in order to protect the ⁠citizens of the area and to maintain order,” the military said in a statement.

Taybeh is one of the only Christian villages remaining in the ​West Bank and was ‌visited last year by the Greek Orthodox patriarch and the Roman Catholic cardinal of Jerusalem.

It is also home to the Taybeh Brewing Co, widely considered West Asia’s oldest microbrewery.

Some Western countries have announced sanctions ​on settler groups over violent Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

In June, Israeli settlers obstructed Palestinians putting out ⁠a large blaze near Taybeh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian civil defence firefighters and a local priest ‌who described an “ongoing pattern of intimidation and unjustified violence” that undermined the residents’ fundamental rights.

A U.N. inquiry released on Tuesday (August 4, 2026) found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israeli mission in Geneva rejected the ‌report’s findings, saying Israeli authorities including the president and prime minister had ​repeatedly condemned violence against Palestinians.

Parts of Taybeh are located in Area B, where the Palestinian Authority ⁠runs civil administration but where security control must be coordinated ⁠with Israeli authorities.

The West Bank and Jerusalem are home to around 50,000 Palestinian Christians, members of ‌a religious community there stretching back to antiquity in a region that is home to many of the ​faith’s most important holy sites.