From the HERE City National Desk
WEST BANK — Israeli police said Monday they had taken 10 people into custody in a pre-dawn sweep tied to a weekend of violence by masked settlers, including a beating that badly injured an American news photographer and an assault on a delegation of European diplomats.
Police did not release the suspects’ names. They were picked up at several locations and are suspected of violent acts, breaking a closed military zone order and building illegally, according to the police statement. Officers also took vehicles and items that could be used as evidence. Soldiers and agents of Israel’s domestic security agency took part in the raids, and video released by police appeared to show two slingshots being recovered at one property.
The photographer, a U.S. citizen, was attacked Friday while covering Palestinians harvesting olives in a Palestinian village. Settlers knocked her down, kicked her repeatedly and took her cameras and phone even though she wore a vest marked as press. She suffered broken vertebrae and a broken rib and needed surgery on a finger.
The next day, masked settlers confronted a convoy carrying envoys representing France, Belgium, Poland and the Catholic Church who had come to watch the olive harvest in Taybeh, a few miles to the south. A Belgian consular vehicle was damaged and a French mayor traveling with the group was assaulted.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, praised the arrests as a very positive step toward punishing those who beat the photographer, after earlier calling the attack a despicable act of terror. Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, apologized to her and said the attackers did not represent the country’s values. Daniel Levy, the national police commissioner, said no one in the territory stands above the law, whatever their identity or affiliation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a more cautious tone, questioning the accounts of both incidents and saying the diplomats entered a sensitive area without coordinating with the military. His coalition faces a national election on Oct. 27.
Violence against Palestinians has spiked during this year’s olive harvest, a season many families depend on for income. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din has counted at least 170 settler attacks since Sept. 27, and it says more than 93% of police investigations into ideologically driven offenses committed by Israelis against Palestinians there from 2005 to 2025 closed without charges.
Section: More Washington DC crime news
Filed under: Washington DC Crime News
