Israel announced the arrest of several suspected extremist settlers Monday morning, after days of international pressure to act following weekend attacks on Palestinians, foreign diplomats and a photojournalist in the West Bank.
At the same time, new incidents of settler violence have been reported.
Police said 10 Israeli suspects were arrested at dawn on suspicion of involvement in the weekend attacks. The suspects were arrested in several locations in the central West Bank.
“Evidence linking them to the alleged acts was found in their possession, and several vehicles were seized,” police said.
Settler activists said one of the locations raided by police was an illegal agricultural outpost close to the Ofra settlement. Several other outposts were also attacked near the settlement of Shiloh, 15 kilometers north of Ofra.
Police said dozens of officers took part in the arrest operation, nicknamed “Olive Leaf,” in reference to violence during the Palestinian olive harvest. It was described as a joint effort with the Shin Bet security agency, with an IDF escort.
The 10 suspects were arrested “on suspicion of being involved in violent incidents,” in violation of a military zone closure order issued by the head of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, “and illegal construction,” police said.
Police officers arrest Israeli suspects in the West Bank, October 19, 2026. (Israel Police)
Police sent images showing some of the arrests and showing slingshots found in raided homes.
Over the weekend, masked Israeli settlers launched several attacks on Palestinians harvesting olives. In one incident on Friday, settlers violently attacked and injured Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. On Saturday, European diplomats were attacked near the village of Taybeh.
The United States condemned the attack on the journalist, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the administration was “very troubled by these images and what we are seeing” and expected Israeli action. The European Union said it expects “full accountability as well as effective measures to prevent further acts of violence.”
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast doubt on both incidents, saying there were questions about what happened and that thorough investigations were needed.
Police said that according to the results of their interrogation, the suspects would be brought before a court for a committal hearing. The right-wing legal aid group Honenu said it represented the detainees.
The police added that IDF forces and Border Police were also “conducting crackdown operations” to dismantle illegal settler outposts and to address violations of military zone closure orders issued by the army, as well as an “intrusion into a Palestinian home.”
Settler violence against Palestinians has skyrocketed this year and increased further in the weeks leading up to Israel’s October 27 elections. Police actions against extremists are rare.
Israel faces growing international criticism over rising violence, which Netanyahu has downplayed as the work of a small number of offenders. Critics accuse the government of condoning and even encouraging the violence, which has led to the displacement of dozens of Palestinian families.
The Israeli military also faces growing criticism over its soldiers who often stand aside while attacks unfold or actively participate in them.
Few perpetrators have been arrested or charged with assault.
New attacks
New incidents of settler violence were reported Sunday and early Monday.
On Sunday evening, the IDF said settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the West Bank, spraying graffiti on a building and setting fire to a storage container.
The army said troops and police were sent to Wadi a-Rahim, in the southern Hebron hills, after a fire was identified near an illegal outpost in the area. “It later emerged that several Israeli civilians who entered the village area had painted graffiti and set fire to a container used as a storage shed,” the army said.
Police arrived on scene to investigate the attack.
The military added that security forces had begun dismantling the illegal outpost.
And on Monday morning, Palestinian media reported that settlers set fire to a vehicle overnight in the village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, during a raid on the village.
No injuries were reported.
#عاجل| مليشيات من المستوطنين تهاجم منازل الفلسطينيين في منطقة صافا ببلدة بيت أمر شمال الخليل. pic.twitter.com/SJBRqMQoyS
– المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) October 18, 2026
Nurit Yohanan, Jeremy Sharon, Lazar Berman and agencies contributed to this report.
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