{"id":649520,"date":"2026-10-17T20:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/649520\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:00:09","slug":"masked-settlers-attack-european-diplomats-in-occupied-west-bank-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/649520\/","title":{"rendered":"Masked settlers attack European diplomats in occupied West Bank | West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank<\/a> on Saturday, Belgium\u2019s foreign minister said, on a second day of high-profile assaults on Palestinians and others during the sensitive olive harvest.<\/p>\n

At least four people have been killed and more than 100 injured since the harvest began earlier this month, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Activists say Israeli authorities do little to stop attacks that involve weapons ranging from slingshots to guns. An attack on Friday<\/a> seriously injured a Washington Post photographer and others.<\/p>\n

In Saturday\u2019s attack in the village of Taybeh, settlers targeted Belgium\u2019s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, the Belgian foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged. Our team is safe,\u201d Prevot said. He linked the attack to what he called Israel\u2019s \u201cillegal settlement policy\u201d and pledged to push for further EU sanctions.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities must protect Palestinians as the \u201coccupying power\u201d, Prevot added. \u201cImpunity for violent settlers must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attacks came less than two weeks before closely contested elections that could end the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s time in office. His government, the most nationalist and far right in Israel\u2019s history, faces domestic criticism over security failures and international criticism over the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military called Saturday\u2019s attack on the diplomats a \u201csevere act of violence\u201d but said the visit had not been coordinated with it and no soldiers were at the scene.<\/p>\n

The Israeli police said it had opened an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israel police condemns violence of any kind and will work to complete these investigations until everyone who took part in these cases is brought to justice,\u201d the police statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly condemn the severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters,\u201d the country\u2019s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on X, adding that his ministry was in contact with ambassadors from the countries concerned.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Prevot condemned \u201cin the strongest terms\u201d the attack by Israeli settlers on the European diplomatic convoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cImpunity for violent settlers must end,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis violence cannot be separated from Israel\u2019s illegal settlement policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelgium condemns settlement expansion and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-649520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}