A police investigation is underway after European diplomats said they were assaulted by Israeli settlers while visiting the occupied West Bank on Saturday, authorities said. Meanwhile, the prime minister’s office urged caution before “drawing conclusions,” and the reports come “amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel.”
Israeli police said they launched the investigation following footage circulating online, which appears to show several diplomats being attacked near the village of Taybeh. The statement said efforts were underway to locate the victims and identify the suspects “with the aim of bringing them to justice.”
“The Israel Police condemns violence of any kind and will pursue these investigations to their full extent, ensuring that everyone involved in such incidents is brought to justice,” the statement said.
Israel’s military condemned the “severe act of violence” during which diplomatic representatives were “attacked by Israeli rioters.” It said the diplomats’ visit had not been coordinated with them and that no soldiers were at the scene.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the diplomats included representatives from France, Belgium and Poland.
Netanyahu alleges reports come amid concerns of a smear campaign against Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office condemned the reports of the attacks on the diplomats and urged caution against drawing conclusions, as it tried to cast doubt over the circumstances surrounding the attack.
“Any violence against diplomats is unacceptable,” a statement said Saturday. “The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence.”
The prime minister’s office said the diplomatic delegation “entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations” without prior coordination with the Israeli military. It said such coordination is “essential to protecting visiting diplomats and preventing violence.”
In the statement, the prime minister’s office said the footage circulating online shows masked individuals confronting a diplomatic vehicle. He said images alone do not establish the “complete sequence of events or individual responsibility.”
“These reports come amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest, relying on sensational headlines before the full facts emerge,” the prime minister’s office said. “We may see further allegations in the coming days. By the time the evidence is fully examined, the reputational damage from premature conclusions may already be done.”
Diplomats detail attack, call on Israel to protect Palestinians
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot claimed on social media that Israeli settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives. CBS News has reached out to Belgium’s consul general in Jerusalem and to Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged. Our team is safe,” Prevot wrote on X.
He linked the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and called on Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians as the “occupying power.”
“Harvesting olives, reporting the news or carrying out diplomatic duties should never put anyone at risk of attack,” he said.
Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, told Agence France-Presse that he was attacked during a goodwill visit to Taybeh.
“The whole world needs to know what’s happening there,” he said. “For me, I’ll go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here.”
Baudoux said he did not suffer serious injuries. He said the attackers kicked him and beat him with iron bars, and threw him to the ground.
“It’s the gratuitous nature of the violence that stuns me,” he said. “They arrived completely enraged.”
Netanyahu’s office, in its statement, said Baudoux previously raised the Palestinian flag over the Aulnoye-Aymeries municipal building, “prompting French authorities to order its removal.”
Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed the incident on social media, saying in a statement that its representatives were unharmed and that based on information currently available, “there is no indication that they were specifically targeted.”
It added: “According to preliminary information, Israeli settlers may have been responsible for the incident.”
“We are deeply outraged by this incident and condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” the statement on X said. “Poland has consistently opposed violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Attacks against members of the diplomatic corps are absolutely unacceptable.”
“We remain in close contact with our partners to establish the full circumstances of the incident,” the statement said.
Settler violence has surged in West Bank
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged in recent years, particularly after the establishment of Israel’s current hard-right government in late 2022, according to statistics released by the United Nations humanitarian office.
Activists say authorities do little to stop it, particularly during this year’s annual olive harvest.
Netanyahu, in the past, has condemned the violence and vowed a crackdown against what he says is a small group of several hundred wayward youths responsible for attacks on Palestinians.
Human rights groups and critics say the government is complicit in the attacks and that Netanyahu’s condemnation appears to be posturing since the Israeli military often intervenes on the settlers’ side and the perpetrators are rarely prosecuted.
Saturday’s attack follows a similar incident on Friday during which several people were seriously injured, including a freelance American photojournalist working with The Washington Post.
On Saturday, Heidi Levine, the veteran American journalist injured in the attack, was undergoing surgery on her finger, which was nearly detached from her hand, her daughter told the Associated Press.
Ashley Milner said Levine also has a broken rib and multiple broken vertebrae, as well as lacerations.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday called for a full investigation and the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in the attack against Levine.
“Attacking a female photographer is despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards. Dishonorable act of senseless violence,” he wrote on social media.
Israel’s police and military said they had opened investigations into Friday’s incident.
