U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee issued a rare rebuke of Israeli settlers this week, calling a recent siege of homes in the occupied West Bank, including one owned by a Palestinian American, a “horrific act of terror.”

Typically a fierce defender of Israel and its settlers in the West Bank, Huckabee took an unusually stern position against the recent violence against Palestinian residents of Qusra village in a post on X.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Huckabee wrote Thursday. “No excuse for such thuggish behavior.”

Huckabee was referring to Israeli settlers who trapped two Palestinian families inside their respective homes over the weekend, according to The Guardian and the BBC. Settlers also reportedly shut off their water and power supplies.

Qusra’s mayor, Abdel Azim Wadi, told the BBC that local residents had seen “a clear and sustained pattern of targeting” of their village in recent months.

Huckabee, who was appointed to his post by President Donald Trump last year, said Thursday that the Israeli military and police are working “to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this” at the request of the United States.

The Trump administration has offered broad support for Israeli settlers in the West Bank and has rolled back sanctions imposed under the Biden administration that sought to curb settler violence.

In an interview with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson in February, Huckabee said it would be “fine” if Israel “took it all,” referring to land between the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq, which a biblical verse says God promised to Abraham and his descendants. The remarks drew swift condemnation from Arab leaders and human rights advocacy groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed last month that his government would expand settler outposts in the West Bank. Many countries view the settlements as a violation of international law. Israeli settlements have continued to expand in the West Bank despite a 2024 nonbinding ruling by the United Nations’ top court that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful. 

The death toll from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza surpassed 73,000 in June despite a ceasefire reached in October 2025, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. At the same time, violence in the West Bank has surged, with Israeli forces or settlers having killed at least 76 Palestinians, including 18 children, so far in 2026, according to the United Nations.

“While the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and regional tensions consume much of the international community’s attention, the West Bank is at the breaking point,” U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

Confrontations between Israelis and Palestinian Muslim worshippers in nearby East Jerusalem are also becoming increasingly violent, particularly at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites for Muslims in the world. In recent weeks, Israelis have stormed the mosque’s compound, known as the Temple Mount by Jews, joined at least once by Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Calls to cut off military aid to Israel in Washington have grown in recent weeks. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called Huckabee a “mouthpiece for Israel,” and called on him to resign on Monday amid the escalation in the region.

“A U.S. ambassador’s job is to protect and defend the citizens and interests of the United States,” Van Hollen said.

A House vote last month split Democrats, including their leadership, on whether to cut off military aid to Israel over its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

“For the good of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, it is clear that U.S. policy must change,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who voted in favor of limiting aid, said at the time. “The United States must be a force for security and stability. The American people are rightly demanding an end to a perpetual cycle of war, and the Netanyahu government cannot maintain its current course.”

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