Israeli police arrested 10 suspects in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Oct. 19, in connection with weekend settler attacks on an American journalist and a delegation of European diplomats, the BBC reported. The arrests came three days after masked settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine near the Palestinian village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah.
Levine was photographing Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest on Friday, Oct. 16, when settlers attacked the group. A BBC team near Khirbet Abu Falah saw the violence unfold. A local official said 12 Palestinians were hurt along with Levine, four of them dual Palestinian-American citizens.
West Bank Settler Attack Arrests And The Alleged Assault
Levine was wearing a flak jacket marked “PRESS” on the front and back. She was knocked down, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone, and she suffered four broken vertebrae, a broken rib and cuts across her body, according to the BBC. She also needed surgery on a finger. Speaking by phone from her hospital bed in central Israel on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, Levine said the attack “could have been a lot worse” and credited her helmet and vest with protecting her.
The next day, Saturday, Oct. 17, masked settlers confronted a delegation that had traveled to the Christian village of Taybeh, about 4 miles south of Abu Falah, to watch the harvest. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the people targeted included Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic Church representatives. He said a Belgian consulate car was damaged and French mayor Bernard Baudoux was assaulted. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned the violence.
Police said the suspects were picked up at several locations in the central West Bank on suspicion of violence, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction, and that vehicles and possible evidence were seized. A later police statement reported by The Times of Israel said two suspects are tied to the attack on the diplomats, four to the attack on Levine and four to a break-in at a Palestinian home. Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy said the law in the West Bank applies to everyone “regardless of identity or affiliation.”
What The Arrests Mean For Press Safety And Settler Accountability
The sweep stands out because cases like this rarely move fast. According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, more than 93% of police investigations into ideologically motivated crimes by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank between 2005 and 2025 closed without an indictment.
Levine told the BBC that Israeli President Isaac Herzog called her, labeled the attackers thugs and promised to do all he could to get them arrested. Herzog said he told her the attackers’ behavior does not reflect Israel’s citizens or values.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office took a different tone, describing the incidents in Abu Falah and Taybeh as “alleged” attacks and calling the coverage part of a coordinated effort to smear Israel and West Bank settlers. Levine told the BBC she found that response shocking.
In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was disturbed by the images and that President Donald Trump does not want friction or a crisis in the West Bank. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the arrests a positive development.
Background On Settler Violence During The Olive Harvest
U.N. records show settler violence in the West Bank at an all-time high, and it has spiked during this year’s olive harvest, a season many Palestinian families depend on. Yesh Din said Sunday, Oct. 18, that it had recorded 269 harvest-related incidents over the previous 20 days, including 98 cases of violence and physical assaults against harvesters.
Since capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has built about 160 settlements that house roughly 700,000 Jewish residents. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live in the same territory. U.N. figures show at least 96 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank this year, 25 of them in settler attacks. The U.N. says four Israelis were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank over the same period.
What’s Next
No indictments had been announced as of Wednesday, Oct. 21. The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended the detention of seven suspects and released three others under restrictive conditions, Ynet reported. Detention for the suspects in the Levine and Taybeh attacks ran through Wednesday, and police said a prosecutor’s statement, the step that comes before an indictment, had been filed against one suspect. The Times of Israel has since reported an 11th arrest. Whether this case becomes one of the rare ones that reaches a courtroom is the question to watch.
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