Settler Attacks Rise in the West Bank During the Olive Season; Diplomats Also Targeted

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians during the olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank have risen to an unprecedented level, according to reports. The European Union has condemned settler attacks on EU diplomats and Palestinians, but critics say that words of condemnation alone will not stop these attacks.

In a statement on Sunday, the EU said it expects full accountability and effective measures to prevent continued violence and violent harassment against Palestinians — including during the ongoing olive season — as well as violence against journalists. The statement called on Israel to fully comply with international humanitarian and human rights law and to halt settlement expansion.

According to reports, settler attacks during this year's olive season have already exceeded the total number for 2025. In critics' view, without holding Israel accountable, mere condemnation by the EU and member states cannot prevent these attacks, because the attackers allegedly enjoy impunity from the Israeli authorities.

Saturday's incident is the latest example of attacks that have been intensifying for weeks against local communities in the occupied West Bank. Israelis from illegal settlements are carrying out these attacks, and they mainly receive protection from Israeli forces or at least are not obstructed by them, according to reports. On Friday as well, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters and a veteran photojournalist.

Belgium's Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said that alongside the country's consul general to the Palestinians, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives were among those attacked. France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on the Israeli government to arrest the settlers who attacked Bernard Bodou, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, saying the government must urgently put an end to this criminal violence and ensure the safety of the civilian population.

Israeli police have begun an investigation into this attack, according to reports, as settler attacks across the occupied territory disrupt Palestinians' harvesting of their crops.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was 'very troubled' by photographs of Friday's settler attack in the occupied West Bank on American photojournalist Heidi Levin, 64, who works as a freelance photojournalist for The Washington Post. Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, he said he had not yet received a formal briefing on Friday's incident, but what he had seen 'did not look good.' He called on Israel to be tough in suppressing the violence, saying President Donald Trump does not want to see 'friction' or a 'crisis' in the West Bank.

Palestinian political analyst and playwright Ahmad Najjar said condemnation without consequences is not accountability. In his words, Western governments continue to give Israel weapons, money and diplomatic protection, yet treat settler attacks as isolated acts by a few extremists; but this violence flourishes within the larger system of occupation, settlement expansion and impunity. The West cannot claim to oppose settler violence if it keeps supporting the state and the policies that make it possible, he added.

Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, the EU's former representative to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, holds a similar view. He said the weak protests of European chancelleries in response to these terrorist acts by Israeli settlers are regrettable, because no real punitive measures are taken after them. In his words, this settler terrorism has been going on for years with complete impunity, yet even at the most recent meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on 12 October, EU ministers could not decide on sanctions against violent settlers or their enablers.

On Saturday, Israeli settlers attacked the vehicles of diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland near the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. According to eyewitnesses and media reports, at least seven masked settlers surrounded the vehicles, demanded identity cards, smashed a window of a Belgian consulate car and attacked the French mayor.

Bodou, 78, said he was 'somewhat shaken' by the incident. The blue-white-red sash of a mayor was around his neck, clearly a symbol of France, as he tried to protect the people around him; still it was not enough and he was violently attacked, and the people around him protected him as they tried to contain the situation. He said the settlers knocked him to the ground, after which his team quickly returned to the vehicles and left the area. He also said that, as a pacifist who had come to celebrate the friendship of two towns, he had not imagined such a thing could happen.

But refusing to be frightened by the attack, Bodou said olive groves hold great significance for the Palestinian people, so he believes they need to return there. Former EU diplomat Burgsdorff said this attack is nothing new; during his visits to occupied Palestinian territory from January 2020 to July 2023, he saw thugs attacking peaceful Palestinian farmers and civilians, and once a group of settlers also threw stones at them.

In recent weeks, attacks against Palestinians picking olives have become more intense. Earlier on Saturday, settlers injured six Palestinians, and Israeli forces arrested farmers during attacks across the occupied West Bank. According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, among those injured in an attack on residents of the village of Main in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron were four women and a child.

In the town of Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, Israeli forces fired on olive-picking farmers and forced them to leave their land, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported; settlers in the area also opened fire and injured two Palestinians. In the village of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, settlers raided a farm at dawn and killed about 20 sheep, Mayor Nazeh Rustum said.

In reports from Ramallah, settlers destroyed olive trees across the Beit Furik plain east of Nablus, and Israeli forces arrested landowners and olive harvesters. In the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, settlers under army protection fired live bullets at farmers in the Al-Harik area, preventing them from harvesting their crops and forcing them to leave their land; in the village, the car of international activist Jonathan Budlak was vandalized and stones were thrown at a farmer's car.

On Friday, dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian farmers picking olives, threw stones, used catapults and set trees on fire. Before the Friday and Saturday attacks, on 7 October, 44-year-old Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari was killed in an attack on Palestinians picking olives near Burqa, northwest of Nablus; eyewitnesses said settlers and Israeli soldiers had attacked the harvesters.

Journalists documenting the violence have also been targeted. Eyewitnesses said Levin, who was attacked near Abu Falah on Friday, was assaulted after she fell to the ground; after being taken to a hospital northeast of Ramallah, she told reporters the attackers kept kicking her perhaps 50 times. She was wearing a protective vest with 'PRESS' written on the front and back; according to The Washington Post's report, her camera and phone were snatched during the attack. On 6 October, armed settlers near Aqraba, south of Nablus, beat AFP's Palestinian photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, with rifle butts, causing injuries to his head and torso, after which he was taken to hospital.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din documented 377 incidents of violence involving settlers and soldiers in the two weeks up to 10 October. With the olive season ongoing and debate growing over real measures beyond condemnation, attention will now be on the next steps regarding investigation and accountability.