Israeli police had detained no one by Sunday morning over the settler attacks on European diplomats in the village of Taybeh on Saturday and on an American photojournalist in Abu Falah on Friday. Police sources say officers blame the European diplomatic missions for not cooperating with the investigation.
West Bank district police have asked the missions, through Israel's foreign ministry, for detailed statements, videos and photos. They also want access to the attacked vehicles and permission to collect forensic evidence, so they can identify, arrest and prosecute the attackers. The missions had not provided any of this by Saturday evening, police sources said.
A delegation from France, Belgium and Poland was in Taybeh for the olive harvest, with security. French mayor Bernard Bodu of Aulnoy-Emry, a town twinned with Taybeh, was with them. Villagers had invited diplomats and peace activists to pick olives alongside them, to help protect them.
A diplomat who saw the attack said the attackers were seven masked men aged 20 or older, armed with clubs and metal bars. He said they were unlikely to be from the nearby outpost and had come from far away, which meant they had been called in specially.
Bodu was kicked and injured. The attack itself was not filmed, but later footage shows him on the ground. A Belgian consulate car was also attacked, and photos from the scene show its smashed window.
A diplomat who was in one of the cars said the delegation fled. After the beating, he said, the attackers shouted "Long live France" because they had recognised the French flag. He said it was frightening and the attackers had not come to pick olives. He found it especially worrying that the violence happened in an area under Israeli control. The situation on the ground is terrible, especially for residents who live off olives, the diplomat said.
American photojournalist Heidi Levin, who works for a US newspaper, was attacked in Abu Falah on Friday. She had surgery on her hand on Saturday. Her daughter, Ashley Milner, says a cut on Levin's left finger goes down to the bone and tendon. Levin also has a broken rib, fractures to several vertebrae and cuts on her body.
Maj Gen Moshe Pinchi, commander of the West Bank district, is personally following both investigations. They are with the district's central investigations unit, which works with the Shin Bet, and more detectives have been added to the cases. Pinchi is pressing police and the Shin Bet to share intelligence and work together.
The attacks sparked international outrage, but senior Israelis have reacted in different ways. Foreign minister Gideon Saar, the army and the police condemned the violence. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office put out a statement in English questioning whether the evidence shows exactly what happened and who is to blame.
The office said the delegation entered a sensitive area without coordinating with the army. It also voiced fears of a coordinated campaign to discredit Israel and Jewish residents of the West Bank during the harvest.
Members of the delegation call the claim misleading. They said Taybeh is in Area B, where visits do not need coordination, and that diplomats go there often, without the army ever escorting them or asking for coordination.
One of the diplomats said the mayor's political profile does not matter. He said Netanyahu ignores that the village is Christian and the delegation came from Catholic countries committed to protecting Christians. In Europe the statement is seen as shocking, he added.
Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said Belgium will keep urging the EU to impose sanctions on those responsible for settler violence and on those who support it. His French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, called for those responsible to be arrested and prosecuted, and for urgent steps to protect civilians. Poland's foreign ministry condemned the attack.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the attack on the unarmed photographer despicable violence and called for a full investigation, arrests and prosecutions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters: "We are very concerned by this footage and by what we are seeing. We asked the Israelis, and we keep asking them, to stop these things."
Taybeh lies north-east of Ramallah and is the last entirely Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank. It holds special religious meaning for Christians. Residents describe repeated attacks on homes, cars and farmland, and some families are leaving because they fear for their safety.
In July 2025, a cemetery in the village was set on fire and a church was desecrated. Huckabee visited Taybeh then and called the attack an act of terrorism.