TURMUS AYYA, Palestinian Territories: The US ambassador to Israel said Saturday that the Israeli government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians’ safety and should impose “severe consequences” over violence, as he visited families after a surge in attacks by Israeli settlers.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee went further in remarks during his visit to the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, describing some settlers responsible for arson, vandalism and property seizures as carrying out “acts of terror” — unusually strong language from a US official, according to The Associated Press, which reported that such violence could not continue without action by Israeli authorities.

Huckabee also said there was no Israeli plan to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza, despite recent statements by senior Israeli ministers outlining proposals for the departure of the war-battered territory’s roughly two million residents, AFP reported.

“I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will,” Huckabee told reporters during his West Bank visit.

Huckabee, long known as a staunch supporter of Israel and the settlement movement, visited the home of a Palestinian American resident that has repeatedly been targeted by settlers and said he wanted to hear the community’s “legitimate grievances.”

“If there are squatters that come in and put up their own flags and take possession of something that does not belong to them, if they burn a car, if they torch a mosque, if they go into someone’s home and vandalize it, paint graffiti on the walls, that’s a criminal act,” Huckabee said, according to AP.

“But it extends beyond a criminal act. It’s an act of terror.”

The use of the term “terrorists” was particularly notable because US officials have generally reserved such language for Palestinian militants rather than Israeli settlers.

Huckabee calls for Israeli action

As the ambassador met families inside a finely manicured old house in Turmus Ayya, where around 80 percent of the town’s approximately 4,000 residents hold US citizenship, a settler from a nearby outpost approached the area on a quad bike, AFP reported.

“One of the messages that we have been sending and we will continue to send is that people in these communities have a right to live with a level of security and safety, and that the government has a responsibility to make sure that that happens,” Huckabee said.

“Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror,” he added. “When people do it they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences.”

The visit came after months of unrest and a broader surge in settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, where violence has intensified since the Gaza war began following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, as reported by AP.

Settler violence surges in West Bank

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, when it also captured Gaza and east Jerusalem. Palestinians want those territories for a future independent state, while the UN and much of the international community regard the West Bank as occupied territory and Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among around three million Palestinians. Since 1967, Israel has established nearly 150 settlements, many of which have developed into large suburban communities, AP reported.

Violence by settlers against Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have brought renewed concern as attacks on homes, vehicles, farms and religious sites have increased.

Turmus Ayya has reported frequent settler attacks over the past year. Huckabee met about 10 Palestinian American residents, who described the impact of the violence on their lives and properties, according to the municipality, AP said.

He spent around two hours meeting Palestinian Americans at the home of Samir Hazmeh before joining residents for a lunch of maqluba, a traditional dish of rice and meat served after the pot is turned upside down, AFP reported.

Hazmeh said the house where he welcomed Huckabee had twice had its windows smashed by settlers, who had also tried to open its gates and set it on fire. He said he had installed barbed wire and flown an American flag in hopes of gaining protection.

Palestinian Americans seek protection

Huckabee began his remarks by stressing that he was addressing the concerns of US citizens.

“I’m very aware that a lot of the American people who live in Turmus Ayya and other communities across this region are not enjoying the life they deserve to live, not enjoying it in a peaceful way,” he said, according to AP.

“It’s a life that is disturbed by people who have created extraordinary challenges that are unfair and illegal.”

The US Embassy could not itself investigate criminal activity, Huckabee said, but it could press the Israeli government to act.

The embassy can tell its host government “there are needs that need to be addressed, there are issues that cannot go unnoticed, and specific crimes and acts of terror that cannot continue without that country doing the investigation and adjudication that every person has a right to expect,” he said.

Yasser Alqam, who met the ambassador, said he owned land just 100 meters away but had been unable to return following repeated settler attacks, AFP reported.

“The United States already has the ability to put pressure on Israel to at least arrest those settlers who are known to the authorities,” he said.

Alqam also expressed surprise that President Donald Trump had lifted sanctions imposed by his predecessor Joe Biden on settlers accused of extremist violence.

His wife Jinan, wearing a traditional Palestinian dress, said she had asked Huckabee to help provide protection so Palestinians could safely return to their land and harvest olives during the coming season.

“I hope that he can do something for us and provide us with protection from the settlers so that we can reach our land and pick the olives,” she said.

Huckabee rejects forced displacement from Gaza

Huckabee’s comments on Gaza came after Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir laid out a plan on Thursday aimed at seeing 250,000 Palestinians leave Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the territory’s population over the following six years, AFP reported.

His remarks came a day after Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel was ready to remove Palestinians from Gaza by sea and land but was waiting for the United States, which he said was discussing where the population could go.

Katz, without citing evidence, said 80 percent of Gaza’s population wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them from doing so.

Huckabee said the Trump administration wanted Palestinians to have the option of leaving Gaza voluntarily if they chose.

“There is an open-mindedness if people wish to leave, that they should have the right to leave,” he said, calling it a “disgrace” to “incarcerate” Palestinians inside Gaza.

“Nobody is suggesting there would be forced displacement — the Israelis are not, the Americans are not. I know of no one who supports that,” Huckabee said.

Forced displacement of a civilian population from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Virtually the entire population of Gaza has already been displaced internally during Israel’s military offensive following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Since the start of the war, some far-right Israeli politicians have also spoken of bringing Israeli settlers back to the Gaza Strip, where Israel dismantled its settlements in 2005 under a unilateral disengagement plan.

The issue of Gaza’s future has become increasingly politically charged ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections, in which polls show a tight race for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has brought once-shunned far-right figures into his governing coalition.

Trump himself stunned the world early in his second term by proposing that Palestinians be displaced, at least temporarily, from Gaza and that the devastated Mediterranean territory be redeveloped into a luxury resort, AFP reported.

He later backed away from the proposal after strong international opposition, including from Egypt, the only country other than Israel that shares a border with Gaza.

Previous clashes over settler attacks

Huckabee has previously used similarly strong language over settler violence. Last month, he intervened after settlers surrounded and blocked basic supplies from reaching a Palestinian American in the West Bank town of Qusra, according to AFP.

The episode prompted rare public condemnation of settlers by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Days later, residents of the West Bank village of Bazariya said settlers had burned a mosque and left graffiti in Hebrew reading: “Huckabee regards from the terrorists,” AP reported.

“I’m glad they admitted it,” Huckabee said Saturday, referring to the message.

“I don’t think that’s what they intended to do, but I do think that they represent a very tiny minority.”

Netanyahu a week ago condemned the actions of what he called a “handful of rioters,” while Israel’s foreign ministry described settler violence as “a disgrace.”

Huckabee similarly sought to distinguish violent settlers from the broader Israeli population, saying Israel itself suffered reputational damage when extremists appeared to act with impunity.

“Their reputation does not do well when it appears that this tiny little group of marauders are somehow representative of the larger population. I don’t believe that it is,” he said, according to AFP.

“There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many.”

Government faces scrutiny over settlements

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former governor of Arkansas, has long cited his religious faith in expressing strong support for Israel and has historically been closely associated with the settlement movement.

On Saturday, he invoked the Bible in condemning violence and the seizure of property.

“I think the Scripture is pretty clear — Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not even covet,” he said.

The ambassador’s comments come as Netanyahu’s government, the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history, has presided over a surge in settlement construction and approvals for new settlements, AFP and AP reported.

Ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections, Netanyahu’s government has also faced renewed scrutiny over the influence of far-right ministers who have openly advocated policies that critics say could lead to the displacement of Palestinians.

Rights groups have long accused Israel’s military of frequently turning a blind eye to settler violence, AP reported. Israel’s military operates throughout the West Bank, while settlers are Israeli citizens subject to a different legal system from Palestinians living under military rule.

Israel’s defense minister recently announced plans to fully transfer law-enforcement responsibilities involving settlers to the Israeli police.

Huckabee stopped short Saturday of directly criticizing Netanyahu’s government by name. He said, however, that it was in Israel’s own “best interest” to act against those responsible for violence.

Wider criticism over Gaza war

Israel is already facing mounting criticism internationally, including in the United States, over its devastating offensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Huckabee’s West Bank visit nevertheless marked one of his strongest public interventions yet on behalf of Palestinian Americans affected by settler violence.

For residents of Turmus Ayya, the ambassador’s unusually blunt language raised hopes that Washington might use its influence to press Israeli authorities to provide greater protection and hold perpetrators accountable.

Whether the remarks will translate into concrete action remained unclear, but Huckabee insisted that the principle was straightforward: Palestinians living in the West Bank, including American citizens, had a right to security, and Israel had a responsibility to ensure it.