Israeli police say they have detained 10 people in the occupied West Bank following a spate of settler violence that left a US photographer hospitalized and a French mayor assaulted.
According to police, officers carried out pre-dawn raids at multiple sites across the West Bank, confiscating vehicles and what they described as potential evidence connected to the incidents. The arrests come as tensions rise during Palestinians’ annual olive harvest, a period that has increasingly seen settlers disrupt picking and access to groves.
“Following the severe incidents of violence over the past weekend, including the assault of a media worker and the suspected attacks on foreign civilians, an arrest operation was conducted before dawn,” said Major General Moshe Finchi, the Israeli police’s West Bank commander.
“Suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a military commander’s order concerning a closed military zone, and illegal construction,” he said.
The latest cases arrive amid international anger over what many governments and rights advocates describe as escalating settler attacks in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, locked in a tight contest ahead of elections on 27 October, has sought to reinforce support among right-wing voters and has questioned the circumstances surrounding recent settler assaults.
Israel’s opposition has called the attacks on Western nationals a blow to the country’s international standing, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has enabled an atmosphere in which such violence can unfold.
Human rights organizations say prosecutions of settlers are uncommon when Palestinians are targeted. The United Nations has reported that settler violence against Palestinians — including killings, beatings, vandalism and arson — averaged six incidents a day in the first half of the year.
On Saturday, settlers targeted a convoy of European diplomats, among them the French and Belgian consuls general in Jerusalem, as it passed through Taybeh, a predominantly Christian town in the West Bank.
During the same flare-up, settlers assaulted Bernard Baudoux, 78, the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France. Baudoux, known as an advocate for the Palestinian cause, was in the area on a goodwill visit and took part in olive harvesting when he was attacked.
A day earlier, on Friday, settlers attacked Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer on assignment for The Washington Post, sending her to hospital with broken vertebrae.
UN World Food Programme ends aid to 500,000 in Gaza over funding
Meanwhile, the UN’s World Food Programme said today that it would end monthly assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza due to a funding shortfall, while warning that needs remained acute.
“As of this month, we’re now cutting half a million people from the number of people that we’re assisting,” Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director said.
The reductions lower to 1.1 million people — still about half of Gaza’s war-battered population — the number of Palestinians receiving WFP support, whether food deliveries or cash assistance.
