Masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Belgium’s foreign minister said, the second day of high-profile attacks on Palestinians and others during the delicate olive harvest.
At least four people have been killed and more than 100 injured since harvesting began earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Activists say Israeli authorities are doing little to stop attacks involving weapons ranging from slingshots to guns. An attack Friday seriously injured a Washington Post photographer and others.
In Saturday’s attack in the village of Taybeh, settlers targeted the Belgian consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said.
“A French mayor was attacked and a Belgian vehicle damaged. Our team is safe,” Prévot said. He linked the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and vowed to push for new EU sanctions.
Israeli authorities must protect Palestinians as an “occupying power,” Prevot added. “The impunity of violent settlers must end. »
The attacks came less than two weeks before hotly contested elections that could end the term of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His government, the most nationalist and far-right in Israel’s history, faces domestic criticism over its security failures and international criticism over the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli military called Saturday’s attack on the diplomats a “serious act of violence” but said the visit was not coordinated with it and that no soldiers were present at the scene.
Israeli police announced that they had opened an investigation.
“The Israeli police condemn all forms of violence and will work to complete these investigations until all those who participated in these cases are brought to justice,” the police statement said.
“I strongly condemn the serious acts of violence committed by Israeli rioters,” the country’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, declared on X, specifying that his ministry was in contact with the ambassadors of the countries concerned.
On Saturday, Prévot condemned “in the strongest terms” the attack by Israeli settlers against the European diplomatic convoy.
“The impunity of violent settlers must end,” he said on X.
“This violence cannot be dissociated from Israel’s illegal settlement policy.
“Belgium condemns the expansion of settlements and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their lands. »
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