Huckabee says Israel not planning to force Palestinians out of Gaza Strip during West Bank visit

Huckabee, a longtime supporter of settlements, has called for violent settler extremists to be prosecuted, while saying he believes their actions represent a minority of settlers.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met on Saturday with West Bank Palestinians, including the families of US citizens killed by violent settler extremists, in a Palestinian town in the West Bank that has been the target of recent extremist settler attacks.

Settler violence in the West Bank has risen sharply in the past years.

Several unauthorized settlements have been established around Turmus Aiya, the Palestinian town near Ramallah that Huckabee was visiting on Saturday. Its residents say that harassment by settler extremists 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 violent extremists.

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.

Huckabee supports settlers, calls for extremists to be prosecuted

Huckabee, a Baptist minister and longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, has called for violent settler extremists to be prosecuted, while saying he believes their actions represent a minority of the wider settler community, which numbers around 750,000.

"We are hoping that (the ambassador) will do something for us regarding these lawless settlers," Turmus Aiya resident Sameer Hazama said ahead of the meeting with the ambassador.

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

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