JERUSALEM: Israeli police said on Monday they had arrested 10 people in the West Bank following settler attacks on an American photographer and a French mayor.
Police said they raided several locations across the West Bank and seized vehicles and potential evidence related to the attacks, which have intensified as settlers disrupt Palestinians’ annual olive harvest.
“Following the severe incidents of violence over the past weekend, including the assault of a media worker and the suspected attacks on foreign civilians, an arrest operation was conducted before dawn,” said Major General Moshe Finchi, the Israeli police’s West Bank commander.
“Suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a military commander’s order concerning a closed military zone, and illegal construction,” he said.
The arrests follow international outrage over mounting settler violence in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a closely contested race for a new mandate in the Oct 27 elections, has sought to shore up his right-wing base and cast doubt on the circumstances surrounding the recent settler attacks.
The opposition described the attacks on Westerners as a stain on Israel’s image and accused Netanyahu of allowing the violence to continue.
Rights groups say Israel rarely prosecutes settlers when the victims are Palestinian. Settler attacks against Palestinians, including killings, beatings, vandalism and arson, averaged six a day in the first half of the year, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday, settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats, including the French and Belgian consuls general in Jerusalem, as it passed through Taybeh, a predominantly Christian town in the West Bank.
The settlers also assaulted Bernard Baudoux, 78, the mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, an advocate of the Palestinian cause who had travelled to the area on a goodwill visit and was helping with the olive harvest.
A day earlier, settlers attacked Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer on assignment for The Washington Post, leaving her hospitalised with fractured vertebrae.