The Israeli police said they detained at least 10 Israelis on Monday after recent attacks in the West Bank in which Palestinians were assaulted during the annual olive harvest, along with a U.S. citizen and European diplomats.
The detainees were all Israeli settlers residing in the occupied West Bank, according to Honenu, a pro-settler legal aid group representing them. The Israeli police statement did not say how many were detained in connection with specific attacks, adding that some of the settlers were detained for entering a closed Israeli military zone.
Israel has faced international pressure — including from the Trump administration — to crack down on settler violence. But rights groups say the vast majority of investigations into attacks on Palestinians end without convictions, effectively granting some impunity.
Israeli extremist attacks on Palestinians in the territory have spiked sharply in recent weeks as large groups of Palestinians have gathered to pick olives on the outskirts of their towns. The trade is an important economic lifeline for rural Palestinian villages, as well as a treasured cultural rite.
On Friday, masked assailants were filmed beating Heidi Levine, 63, a U.S. citizen who was photographing the harvest for the Washington Post. The attackers broke Ms. Levine’s rib, shattered her vertebrae and badly wounded her finger, according to her family, who said she later had to undergo surgery.
The violence in the West Bank continued into the weekend. On Saturday, a group of club-wielding men assaulted Palestinians and a European diplomatic convoy participating in the harvest in the largely Christian town of Taybeh, according to eyewitnesses. A visiting French mayor said the attackers struck him and knocked him to the ground. The episode prompted condemnations from the European Union.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador, praised the arrests overnight on Monday as a “very positive development.” Mr. Huckabee, a longtime supporter of the Israeli settler movement, had previously denounced the assault on Ms. Levine, calling it a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards,” in a post on social media.
“We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this,” Mr. Huckabee said on Saturday.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers reside in the occupied West Bank alongside about three million Palestinians. While the Israelis generally enjoy the same rights and privileges as their compatriots inside Israel, Palestinians live under military rule, with their movements tightly controlled by Israel.
Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians there have risen sharply since the Gaza war began in late 2023, and are part of a broader campaign of violence that has prompted entire Palestinian communities to flee. Some former senior Israeli officials, including generals who formerly oversaw the West Bank, have called the violence “Jewish terrorism.”
While the Israeli authorities have prosecuted some of the more high-profile offenders, the vast majority of investigations do not lead to convictions, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group. Around 93 percent of investigations tracked by Yesh Din over the past two decades ended without indictments.
Critics of the current Israeli government say it has emboldened Jewish extremists by doing little to rein them in. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is currently facing a neck-and-neck election next month, has suggested the most recent attacks could be part of a “campaign to smear Israel.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who oversees the police, was a lawyer before he entered government, and made a career of defending Israelis accused of attacks on Palestinians. A spokesman for Mr. Ben-Gvir did not respond to a request for comment on the recent attacks on Ms. Levine and the European diplomatic convoy.
The Israeli military previously used administrative detention — holding people without formal charges or a trial — to crack down on settlers accused of the gravest offenses. Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, ended the practice against Israelis, although it is still widely used against Palestinians.
On Monday, Mr. Katz reiterated that he would not use administrative detention against Israeli settlers, calling it “a draconian measure.” More than 3,000 Palestinians are currently detained under the practice in Israeli prisons, according to HaMoked, an Israeli rights group.
Heedo Abu Laban and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.
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