The European Union has condemned Israeli settler attacks on EU diplomats and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as violence during the Palestinian olive harvest reaches levels described as unprecedented. In a statement on Sunday, the bloc said it expected “full accountability” and effective measures to stop continued violence and harassment against Palestinians, including during the ongoing harvest, and against journalists.
The EU also urged Israel to fully respect international humanitarian and human rights law and to halt the expansion of settlements. Settler attacks during this year’s harvest have already surpassed the 2025 totals, and critics argue that statements alone will not deter the violence, which they say Israeli authorities allow to go unpunished.
Diplomats attacked near the Palestinian village of Taybeh
On Saturday, Israeli settlers attacked vehicles belonging to diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland near Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian village. According to witnesses and media reports, at least seven masked settlers surrounded the cars, demanded identification, and smashed the window of a vehicle belonging to the Belgian consulate.
French Mayor Bernard Baudoux, the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was also assaulted. He told a news agency he was “a bit shaken” and said his mayor’s sash, which carries the blue, white and red colours of France, had not been enough to protect him. He said the settlers threw him to the ground before rushing back to their vehicles to leave.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the country’s consul general to the Palestinians, as well as French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, were among those targeted. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on the Israeli government to arrest the attackers and said the violence had to be stopped urgently. An Israeli police investigation has been opened, and the Israeli military said it was investigating and that its soldiers were not present during the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office appeared to question the reports, describing the accounts on X as “alleged” and calling for “compelling evidence”, even though it acknowledged that published footage of the incident exists.
Journalists and farmers hit across the occupied territory
The violence has also reached journalists. Heidi Levine, 64, a veteran freelance photojournalist who works for The Washington Post, was attacked near Abu Falah on Friday. Witnesses said she fell to the ground before being set upon, and she later told reporters her attackers “just kept kicking me and kicking me”. Reports said her cameras and phone were taken during the assault, even though she was wearing a vest marked “PRESS”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was “very disturbed” by images of the attack. Speaking at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, he said he had not yet received an official briefing but that what he had seen “didn’t look good”. He urged Israel to “crack down” on the violence and said President Donald Trump did not want to see friction or a crisis in the West Bank.
Earlier, on October 6, armed settlers beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a Palestinian photographer for the AFP news agency, with rifle butts near Aqraba, south of Nablus. According to witnesses, relatives and colleagues, he was taken to hospital with head and torso injuries.
Palestinian farmers have been hit as well. Settlers injured six Palestinians in separate incidents on Saturday, while Israeli forces arrested farmers. In Ma’in village in the Masafer Yatta area, four women and a child were among the injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. In Kafr Malek, settlers killed about 20 sheep, according to Mayor Najeh Rustum. Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari, 44, was killed during an assault on olive pickers near Burqa on October 7, according to the reports cited.
Rights groups say olive harvest attacks are rising sharply
Israeli rights group Yesh Din has documented 377 incidents of violence involving settlers and soldiers over two weeks through October 10. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said nearly 200 settler attacks linked to the harvest this year had caused casualties or property damage, already more than the 185 incidents recorded in the entire 2025 season.
The harvest is an economic lifeline for roughly 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank. Attacks that intimidate farmers, bar them from their groves, or uproot and burn trees cause serious financial losses and push families off their land, according to the reporting.
Palestinian political analyst and playwright Ahmed Najar said condemnation without consequences does not amount to accountability. “The West cannot claim to oppose settler violence while continuing to support the state and policies that enable it,” he said. Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, a former EU representative to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, described the European protests as insufficient, saying they were not followed by concrete punitive measures, and noted that EU ministers had not agreed on sanctions against violent settlers at a Foreign Affairs Council meeting on October 12.
‘s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said that with elections approaching, settlers felt emboldened, and she pointed to an alleged religious edict that she said told them stealing the harvest was permissible. Israeli opposition figures, she said, have criticised Netanyahu for downplaying the violence, arguing that it undermines Israel’s standing.
