JERUSALEM: Israeli police said Monday they had arrested 10 people in the occupied West Bank after settler attacks on an American photographer and a French mayor that drew international condemnation but mixed messages from the government.
In a rare action against rising settler violence, police said they raided several locations across the occupied territory and seized cars and potential evidence related to the attacks.
"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.
Witnesses say that settlers have been stepping up violent attacks on Palestinians during the ongoing olive harvest, aiming to seize their land during a season that carries cultural importance for the community.
Rights groups note that Israel rarely prosecutes settlers when the victims are Palestinian.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said it documented 561 acts of settler or military violence against Palestinians since Sept 27 – more than 26 incidents a day.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a tight race for a new mandate, has tried to shore up his pro-settlement right-wing base and has cast doubt on the circumstances behind the recent settler attacks on Westerners.
Netanyahu's tone has brought unusually strong criticism from the opposition, which has accused him of tarnishing Israel's image.
US ambassador Mike Huckabee, a staunch ally of Israel, had called Friday's beating of veteran photographer Heidi Levine an "act of terror" and demanded punishment. He called Monday's arrests a "very positive development."
Levine, 65, who was on assignment for The Washington Post, was taken to a hospital with broken vertebrae. From her hospital bed, she received a telephone call from President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, and was visited by centre-left opposition leader Yair Golan.
Golan in a social media post afterwards said that if he takes power, there will no longer be "a reality in which Jews instil terror in the name of Jewish supremacy, and stain the state we built here."
Palestinian officials and witnesses reported a series of new attacks even after the arrests, including an attempt by settlers to storm a school near olive groves and the shooting and wounding of a young man near Nablus.
- RISING INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION -
One day after Levine's beating, settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats including the French and Belgian consuls general in Jerusalem as they went through the town of Taybeh in the West Bank on Saturday.
The settlers beat up Bernard Baudoux, 78, the mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries who was wearing a sash in the French tricolour during a goodwill visit in which he helped harvest olives.
Netanyahu earlier questioned the facts behind the two recent incidents.
On Levine's beating, he alleged that Palestinians and "far-left" activists were fanning violence. With the attack on the diplomatic convoy, he pointed out that the mayor was a leftist supporter of the Palestinian cause and said that diplomats should have coordinated with the Israeli military.
The top official on human rights in the US State Department, Riley Barnes, on Sunday visited the same town where the mayor was beaten, which is largely Christian, on a trip coordinated with the military. He was unharmed.
The violence by settlers has led British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to accuse Israel of an "ethnic cleansing" campaign and for his government to impose sanctions on goods from settlements.
Marking Monday's deadline for Israel accepting construction tenders for the E1 settlements, a major new project that Palestinians fear will divide the West Bank in two, Miliband warned businesses about consequences.
"They should be aware of legal and reputational consequences, including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law," Miliband said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hit back against what he called an "obsession" with Israel by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham's government.
"The days when Israel would quietly accept threats, sanctions and attempts to dictate its policies are over," Saar said.--AFP
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