Israeli police arrest 10 after West Bank settler attacks

Israeli police have arrested 10 suspects after masked settlers attacked an American photojournalist and European diplomats during olive harvest visits in the occupied West Bank. The arrests follow a weekend of violence that left Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine seriously injured and drew calls for accountability from the United States and Europe.

Police said the suspects were detained at several locations on Monday on suspicion of violence, violating an order closing a military zone and illegal construction. Officers also seized vehicles and potential evidence. Police did not identify the suspects; Israel’s Army Radio reported that all 10 were Israeli citizens, according to Al Jazeera.

Levine was covering an olive harvest near the Palestinian village of Abu Falah on Friday when settlers knocked her down, kicked her and took her cameras and phone, she told the BBC. She was wearing a flak jacket marked “PRESS.” The BBC reported that she suffered four broken vertebrae, a broken rib and cuts across her body, and needed surgery on an injured finger.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Levine told the BBC from a hospital in central Israel. She said the protective gear had helped shield her from more serious injury. A local official said 12 Palestinians, including four dual Palestinian-American citizens, were injured in an attack near the village that day, the BBC reported.

On Saturday, masked settlers confronted a delegation visiting an olive harvest in nearby Taybeh. The group included envoys from Belgium, France, Poland and the Catholic Church. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said a Belgian consular car was damaged and French mayor Bernard Baudoux was assaulted. He called on Israel to protect Palestinians, diplomats and journalists and to bring those responsible to justice. The European Union demanded “full accountability.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee welcomed the arrests as “a very positive development in finding & punishing those who severely attacked and beat Heidi Levine.” He had earlier called the attack a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he told Levine that the perpetrators’ conduct did not represent Israel’s citizens or values.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, however, questioned accounts of the incidents. It called them “alleged” attacks and said they were part of a “co-ordinated campaign to smear Israel” and West Bank settlers, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that Netanyahu said the diplomats had entered a sensitive area without coordinating with the military and that the facts of Levine’s attack were unclear. Levine called his response “a big slap on my face” in her BBC interview.

The arrests come amid a sharp rise in violence around the olive harvest, a vital source of income for Palestinians. Israeli rights group Yesh Din recorded 269 harvest-related incidents over 20 days, including 98 cases of violence and physical assaults against harvesters, the BBC reported. Yesh Din also said more than 93% of Israeli police investigations into ideologically motivated offences by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank from 2005 to 2025 ended without an indictment.

Police commissioner Daniel Levy said the law applies to everyone in the West Bank, “regardless of identity or affiliation.”