Israeli security forces arrested ten suspected extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank on Monday following attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats that sparked international outrage.
The suspects were detained during a joint operation dubbed “Olive Leaf,” involving police, the Shin Bet security agency, and the IDF, Israeli police said in a statement on Monday.
The arrests were part of an investigation assigned to the police’s Judea and Samaria District investigative unit, the authorities said, using Israel’s name for the West Bank. Ten suspects were arrested in the pre-dawn operation, evidence linking them to the incidents was seized, and several vehicles were confiscated, the police said.
“The law in Judea and Samaria applies to everyone, regardless of identity or affiliation,” Israeli Police Commissioner Danny Levy stated.
The first attack took place on Friday, when Israeli settlers brutally beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine during their reported raid on an olive harvest in the West Bank, breaking four of her vertebrae and a rib, according to WaPo. IDF soldiers reportedly witnessed the event, but did nothing to help her.
The following day, masked settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the Palestinian territory. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, accused the attackers of kicking him and beating him with metal bars.
The attack drew condemnation and demands for action from France, Belgium, and Poland, whose diplomats were part of the delegation. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Washington had urged Israel to “crack down” on the violence.
The violence came amid Israel’s accelerating expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, where they are considered illegal under international law. Israel advanced plans for nearly 11,000 settlement homes this year in a push championed by far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, according to Israeli watchdog Peace Now.
More than 2,060 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage took place this year to date, with 244 incidents since late September, the UN said last week. More than 160 attacks targeting the Palestinian olive harvest were recorded in the two weeks covered by the report, it added.
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