France demands Israel act after 'criminal violence' against visiting mayor

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot demanded on Saturday (October 17, 2026) that Israel crack down on "criminal violence" after a French mayor was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, "was violently assaulted by extremist settlers", Barrot said on X.

"The Israeli authorities must arrest those responsible for these revolting acts and take them to justice. They must urgently halt this criminal violence and guarantee the safety of civilian populations, as they are compelled to do under international law."

Israeli settlers on Saturday (October 17) attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the West Bank and beat up a visiting French mayor, witnesses said, a day after an American photographer was similarly set upon as violence escalates ahead of bitterly fought elections.

The 78-year-old mayor said masked settlers yelled defamatory comments about France, kicked him and hit him with iron bars as he joined Palestinian olive farmers in the West Bank alongside the top French and Belgian representatives in Jerusalem and Polish diplomats.

“I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government,” Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, told AFP after he was attacked.