JERUSALEM, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked European diplomats in the village of Taybeh, near Ramallah in the West Bank, according to the Israeli police, the military and media reports.
According to Israel's state-owned Kan News, seven masked settlers armed with clubs attacked French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and Palestinian olive pickers at the scene. The assailants also smashed a window of a vehicle belonging to the Belgian consulate.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that no IDF soldiers were present at the scene at the time of the attack because the call was made to a divisional operations room that handles reports from security personnel, not civilians.
Israeli police said that they had opened an investigation and notified the Israeli Foreign Ministry to help locate the diplomats who were attacked, collect statements, and identify the attackers.
"Israel Police condemns violence of any kind and will pursue these investigations to their conclusion, bringing to justice everyone involved in such incidents," the police statement said.
The IDF also condemned the attack. However, it said that the diplomats' tour had not been coordinated with the military.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned in a statement "the serious acts of violence committed by Israeli rioters in the Taybeh area."
He said that his ministry is in contact with the ambassadors of the countries concerned to assist law enforcement authorities, which are working to identify the assailants and bring them to justice.
More than half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, alongside about 3.4 million Palestinians.
Also on Saturday, Abdul Jawad Joudah, a Palestinian police officer, was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a police post in an area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.
Since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in October 2025, Israeli attacks have killed 1,511 people, bringing the total death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, to 74,469, according to Gaza-based health authorities on Saturday. ■
