European diplomats attacked by masked Israeli settlers in West Bank village, BBC reports
Belgium and the Israeli military condemned the assault in Taybeh. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office urged caution before anyone draws conclusions.
Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, according to the BBC.
The BBC reported that the envoys, from Belgium, France, Poland and the Catholic Church, had gone to the largely Christian village of Taybeh near Ramallah. They were there to assess the situation on the ground after settlers had attacked Palestinians almost daily as they tried to bring in their olive harvest.
Video footage showed masked settlers confronting the convoy, and reports suggest stones were thrown, the BBC said. Belgian authorities said a consulate car had a window smashed and a French mayor was assaulted. Video showed a man wearing a French tricolor sash slumped beside a vehicle.
Netanyahu's office named the injured official as Bernard Baudoux, the left-wing mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France. The BBC, citing the AFP news agency, reported that he said the settlers kicked him, beat him with iron bars and threw him to the ground. "It's the gratuitous nature of the violence that stuns me," he told AFP.
Belgium's foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, condemned the attack on the country's consul general and the other envoys and said Israel had a responsibility to bring those responsible to justice.
“Impunity for violent settlers must end. Belgium will continue to press for EU sanctions against those responsible for this violence and those who support them.”Maxime Prevot, Belgian foreign minister
The Israel Defense Forces condemned what they called "the severe act of violence" and said they were investigating. They said a preliminary inquiry found that no IDF soldiers were at the scene when the attack happened. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, condemned the violence by what he called "Israeli rioters". He added that "it is unfortunate that the visit was not coordinated with the IDF in advance."
The attack came a day after a separate assault by settlers in another West Bank village, in which a number of Palestinians and Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photographer, were injured, the BBC reported. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack on Levine "disturbing". The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called it a "despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards".
Much about Saturday's events is still unclear. Netanyahu's office urged "caution before drawing conclusions" and said images on social media "do not establish the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility". It suggested the reports were part of a "coordinated campaign to smear Israel". The office said Israeli police and forensic investigators had opened an investigation to establish the facts and identify those responsible.
The BBC report does not say whether anyone has been identified or detained, or how badly the mayor was hurt.
