Israeli police said they arrested 10 suspects early on Monday in connection with a wave of settler violence in the occupied West Bank over the weekend. Police said the suspects were detained on suspicion of involvement in acts of violence, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction. They did not release the suspects’ identities; Israel’s Army Radio reported all were Israeli citizens, and the Shin Bet domestic security service is taking part in the investigation, according to Galatz radio reporting carried by Reuters.
The arrests follow two attacks this site has covered. On Friday, masked settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine in the village of Abu Falah, where she was covering the Palestinian olive harvest, leaving her with several broken ribs and vertebrae, a finger that required surgery and stab wounds requiring stitches. On Saturday, masked settlers attacked European diplomats visiting the Christian village of Taybeh; France, Belgium and Poland, whose delegates were attacked, called on Israel to act.
United States Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X that the arrests were a very positive development in finding and punishing those who attacked Levine. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the military blamed Israeli rioters for the attack on the diplomats. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was more circumspect, saying the diplomats had entered a sensitive area without coordinating with the military and that the facts of the attack on Levine were unclear, remarks Levine said left her shocked and insulted.
Prosecutions of Israeli settlers are rare, and rights groups say perpetrators are seldom arrested. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, counts at least 170 settler attacks since September 27. Whether these arrests lead to charges, in the final week before the October 27 election, is the test that follows.