Masked settlers attack European diplomats and beat a French mayor at an olive harvest in Taybeh, and American officials visit the village a day later

The delegation came to watch an olive harvest and sign a goodwill agreement. It left with a beaten mayor, a damaged consular car and a diplomatic incident. On Saturday, near Taybeh, a predominantly Christian Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, masked settlers attacked a group that included Belgium consul general, French and Polish diplomats, Catholic representatives and Palestinian civilians, during a visit tied to the annual olive harvest.

Bernard Baudoux, the 78 year old mayor of Aulnoye Aymeries in northern France, who had traveled to Taybeh with a French pastor to establish a twinning agreement with the village, told AFP that the settlers kicked him and beat him with iron bars and threw him to the ground. He was wearing the sash in the French national colors. The gratuitous nature of the violence is what stuns me, he said. For me, I will go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here. A local priest said another person suffered a head injury that needed stitches and a woman in her seventies was also assaulted.

Belgium foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, condemned the attack in the strongest terms on X, confirmed his team was safe, and said Belgium will press for European Union sanctions against those responsible and those who support them. Harvesting olives, reporting the news or carrying out diplomatic duties should never put anyone at risk of attack, he wrote. As the occupying power, Israeli authorities must protect Palestinians, ensure the safety of diplomats and journalists, and bring those responsible to justice.

It was the second attack of the weekend. On Friday, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was taken to hospital after being assaulted while covering a Palestinian olive harvest near another West Bank village. On Sunday, American officials including Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, and Brian Burch, the American ambassador to the Holy See, visited the Latin Convent church in Taybeh and were expected to meet members of the Christian community.

The Israeli response has split along the government own lines. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the military both blamed Israeli rioters for the attack on the diplomats. The military said the visit had not been coordinated with it and that no soldiers were present. Israeli police said they have opened an investigation. Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose coalition is projected to lose its governing majority in the October 27 election, was more circumspect. He said the diplomats had entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination with the army, and that the facts of the attack on Levine are unclear. The same day, President Trump published his complete and total endorsement of Netanyahu for reelection. United Nations bodies and most countries regard the settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes that, treating the territory as disputed rather than occupied.