Israel Arrests 10 Settlers Suspected of Attacking European Delegation, Journalist

Israeli police arrested ten settlers on Monday suspected of last weekend's "terrorist attacks" against a European diplomatic delegation and a Washington Post photojournalist. The arrests, involving border police, Shin Bet, and the IDF, also led to the confiscation of vehicles and evidence linking the suspects to the assaults. Israeli security forces stated that simultaneously with the arrests, illegal settlement outposts were evacuated and settlers who had broken into a Palestinian home were removed. The arrested settlers were taken for interrogation in the Judea and Samaria region and will be brought before a court.

However, the article also reports that "terrorist settlers" attacked a Belgian delegation and a French mayor in the Taybeh area, near Ramallah, last weekend. The settlers allegedly used a metal rod, beat the diplomats, damaged the Belgian vehicle, and threw the mayor to the ground. The same settlers are accused of assaulting photojournalist Heidi Levine in the village of Abu Falah.

Israeli media reported that emergency calls and reports of the attacks reached Israeli forces, but their response was delayed. The IDF announced it would form a special fact-finding team to investigate its forces' performance. In parallel, "terrorist settlers" vandalized property and attempted to set fire to vehicles in the village of Khirbet Safa, north of Hebron, last night.

These incidents sparked international condemnation of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank during the olive harvest season. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, however, questioned the accusations on X, stating that "serious allegations require serious evidence" and suggesting the complaints might be a "coordinated campaign to defame Israel." The Prime Minister's office also claimed the European diplomats entered a "sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination," and identified one participant as Bernard Bodo, a French communist mayor who had previously raised a Palestinian flag over his municipal building.