Israeli police arrested 10 suspects following a series of violent weekend attacks by masked settlers against foreign diplomats and journalists in the occupied West Bank. The pre-dawn raids conducted across the West Bank by police, military forces, and the Shin Bet domestic security service also involved seizing cars and potential evidence, including slingshots.
The operation, named Olive Leaf,
targeted individuals suspected of involvement in acts of violence, violating a closed military zone order, and illegal construction. Major General Moshe Finchi, the Israeli police’s West Bank commander, said that Following the severe incidents of violence over the past weekend, including the assault of a media worker and the suspected attacks on foreign civilians, an arrest operation was conducted before dawn,
adding that Suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a military commander’s order concerning a closed military zone, and illegal construction.
Attacks on Journalist and Diplomats
The arrests follow an assault on Friday where masked Israeli settlers attacked Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, a US citizen, while she was covering a Palestinian olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah. Levine, who was among journalists working in the Ramallah area as settlers threw rocks and set parts of the harvest on fire, was taken to hospital with broken vertebrae and underwent surgery on a finger. On Saturday, settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats including French, Belgian, and Polish diplomats as well as a French mayor in the predominantly Christian West Bank town of Taybeh. The attackers beat Bernard Baudoux, the 78-year-old mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries who was on a goodwill visit, and damaged a Belgian diplomatic vehicle.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee welcomed the arrests as a very positive development in finding & punishing those who severely attacked and beat Heidi Levine.
The United States, France, Belgium, and Poland had called on Israel to take action and crack down on settler violence. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the military blamed Israeli rioters
for the attack on the diplomats, and President Isaac Herzog apologised for the assault on Levine. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to cast doubt on the circumstances, stating that the facts of the attack on Levine were unclear
and that the diplomats entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations
without coordinating with the military. Netanyahu’s office also issued a statement urging caution
before drawing conclusions about allegations
of attacks on European diplomats.
Political Context and Rising Violence
The violence unfolded amid a surge in settler attacks that have averaged 27 violent incidents each day since the late-September start of the annual olive harvest, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Netanyahu, facing a tight race in the October 27 elections where his religious-nationalist coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, has tried to shore up his right-wing base by downplaying the scale of the violence. Settler attacks against Palestinians, including killings, beatings, vandalism, and arson, averaged six a day in the first half of the year, according to the United Nations.
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