ISTANBUL 

US House Speaker Mike Johnson became the highest-ranking American official to visit an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday during his trip to Israel.

Johnson visited Ariel city, the fourth-largest illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, according to Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel.

"Speaker Mike Johnson says that the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish People," he wrote on X alongside a photo of Johnson as he speaks at an event in the occupied territories.

Johnson and his delegation also intend to travel to Gaza and tour controversial aid centers of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the US and Israel, Israeli officials told Axios.

Access to food, water, and medical supplies remains severely limited in the Gaza Strip due to an ongoing Israeli blockade and poor distribution of aid by the GHF.

Johnson and his delegation will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog as part of an "unusually long" eight-day visit ending on Aug. 10.

The trip was arranged by Heather Johnston, who founded the US Israel Education Association, a conservative pro-Israeli advocacy organization, three Israeli officials informed Axios.

Israeli sources told the media site that the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, learned of the visit unexpectedly and played no role in organizing it. The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the US Embassy in Jerusalem were similarly uninvolved in preparations.

The unannounced Republican delegation became public knowledge only after Israeli ministers released statements about their meetings with the group.

Johnson arrived on Sunday, accompanied by Reps. Michael McCaul, Nathaniel Moran, Michael Cloud, and Claudia Tenney. Tenney chairs the Friends of Judea and Samaria caucus in the US Congress, which advocates for illegal Israeli settlements.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 1,013 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the ministry.

In an advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.