Israeli police arrested 10 suspects on Monday in connection with the weekend settler attacks in the occupied West Bank that hospitalised an American photojournalist covering a Palestinian olive harvest and targeted a group of European diplomats near the Christian town of Taybeh. Police said the suspects were arrested in a pre-dawn operation on suspicion of involvement in acts of violence, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction, Reuters reported. The Associated Press put the same figure at 10 people arrested on Monday, in connection with what it called a wave of settler violence during a spike in attacks in the annual Palestinian olive harvest season. The suspects, whom police did not identify, were taken into custody for questioning; Israel's Army Radio reported that they were Israeli citizens.
How was the operation carried out?
At dawn, jointly, and under a harvest-season name. CNN reported that police called the operation "Olive Leaf," an apparent reference to the recent start of the olive harvest, which has seen a dramatic rise in settler attacks. Police, military forces and the Shin Bet domestic security service took part, Reuters reported. "During this activity, 10 suspects were arrested, findings linking them to the incidents were seized and several vehicles were confiscated," police said, in CNN's account. "We are working to collect evidence, findings and testimonies and to consolidate an evidentiary infrastructure that will enable bringing those involved to justice," said Israel Police Superintendent Moshe Pinchi. A video released by police of the pre-dawn operation appeared to show two slingshots, which can be used to hurl stones, being found at one property, Reuters reported. Police commissioner Daniel Levy said the law applied to everyone, "regardless of identity or affiliation."
What were the attacks the arrests answer?
Two filmed attacks on consecutive days. On Friday, masked Israeli settlers were filmed assaulting Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, a US citizen, who was covering a Palestinian olive harvest; police said dozens of masked settlers, some armed, descended on the harvest, with some hurling stones with slingshots. Levine was taken to hospital and underwent surgery on a finger, Reuters reported. On Saturday, French, Belgian and Polish diplomats as well as a French mayor were attacked by masked settlers in another part of the West Bank, near Taybeh; a Belgian diplomatic vehicle was also damaged. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the military blamed "Israeli rioters" for the attack on the diplomats. On Sunday, US diplomats — Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, and Brian Burch, US ambassador to the Holy See, among others — visited Taybeh's Latin Convent church and were expected to meet members of the Christian community, Reuters reported; by Sunday there had been no announcement of arrests in either incident, and France had urged Israeli authorities to arrest Saturday's attackers.
How much pressure did the United States apply?
Public, named, and sustained over the weekend. The United States, Israel's closest ally, had urged a crackdown on settler violence and the arrest of the perpetrators of the attack on Levine, Reuters reported; France, Belgium and Poland, whose diplomats were attacked, also called on Israel to take action. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration had told Israel the US "doesn't want to see a new spark" in the West Bank: "We've asked the Israelis and continue to ask them to crack down on that stuff," CNN reported him saying. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on X that Monday's arrests were "a very positive development in finding & punishing those who severely attacked and beat" Levine.
How do the attack counts compare?
They are counted two ways, and both are surging. Reuters, citing the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, reported at least 170 settler attacks on Palestinians since September 27, with journalists, Israeli activists and foreign observers also targeted. CNN, citing the same group, reported Yesh Din had documented more than 530 incidents of settler violence since the beginning of the olive harvest in late September, averaging 27 violent incidents each day, and that Israeli soldiers were present at roughly one quarter of the attacks over this period. The two counts use different scopes — attacks on Palestinians since a fixed date, against all documented incidents since the harvest began — and are published here as each outlet reported them. What is not disputed in any of the reporting opened is the direction: a surge, in harvest season, extending to a hospitalised American journalist and a damaged diplomatic vehicle. Reuters also reported seeing, on Sunday near Salfit, a group of at least 10 settlers, masked and dressed in black, hurling rocks at Palestinians and activists harvesting olives, prompting the farmers to flee, while Israeli border police in the area shot tear gas towards the hills.
What stands in the way of prosecutions?
Record and politics, on the reporting opened. Prosecutions of Israeli settlers are rare, Reuters noted — the sentence appears in both its Sunday and Monday reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose religious-nationalist coalition is projected to lose its governing majority at the October 27 election, spent the weekend more circumspect than his own foreign minister and military: he said the diplomats entered a "sensitive area with a history of confrontations" without coordinating with the military, and that the facts of the attack on Levine were "unclear" — this about attacks recorded on video, in which, CNN noted, Netanyahu has repeatedly downplayed the severity and scale of settler violence. President Isaac Herzog, by contrast, apologised, saying the "violent rioters" who "brutally attacked" Levine did not represent the values of Israel, Reuters reported. And on the same day as the arrests, CNN reported, Israel's defense minister said he would not reinstate administrative detention against Jewish Israelis — a measure CNN described as one of Israel's most effective tools against settler extremism, whose use against Jewish Israelis the minister cancelled as one of his first decisions nearly two years ago. The West Bank is home to some 500,000 settlers and at least 3 million Palestinians, Reuters noted. Whether Monday's 10 arrests become prosecutions is now the test the weekend's diplomacy set.
This report is drawn from Reuters' updated October 19 report, CNN's October 19 report, the Associated Press's October 19 report and Reuters' October 18 Taybeh visit report, all opened and read in full for this article. Police figures and statements are the police's, the Yesh Din counts are published as each outlet reported them with their different scopes stated, and every official's position — condemnation, apology, doubt or defence — is attributed to the official who took it.
