RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and European diplomats in the West Bank on Saturday, according to Palestinian sources, the Israeli military and media reports.
Israel's state-owned Kan News reported that seven masked settlers armed with clubs attacked French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and Palestinian olive pickers in the village of Taybeh, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
The settlers smashed a window of a vehicle belonging to the Belgian consulate and asked the diplomats and passengers to show their identification documents, Palestinian local and security sources told Xinhua.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the diplomats' tour had not been coordinated with the military and that no IDF soldiers were present at the time of the attack, because the call was routed to a divisional operations room handling reports from security personnel rather than 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 condemned the attack as a serious act of violence against diplomatic representatives, saying that police and forensic investigators entered the area under military protection to collect evidence and question witnesses.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned in a statement "the serious acts of violence committed by Israeli rioters in the Taybeh area," saying 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.
Yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office alleged a "smear" campaign against settlers as he sought to cast doubt over the circumstances of the attack.
"These reports come amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest, relying on sensational headlines before the full facts emerge," his office said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.
Meanwhile, settlers across the West Bank attacked Palestinian olive harvesters and farmers, beating and shooting several people, stealing agricultural equipment, and forcing farmers off their land, according to local sources.
Israeli forces were also reported to have fired tear gas, while a settlement guard fired live ammunition, sparking a fire. Settlers also established a new outpost targeting olive harvesters.
The Palestine Liberation Organization's Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported 40 attacks by settlers and Israeli forces against farmers, their land, and crops.
Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the attack on foreign diplomats, calling the perpetrators "colonial terrorist gangs."
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates held the Israeli government responsible and called for accountability.
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, Palestinian police officer Abdul Jawad Joudah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a police post in 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. ■
