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The delegation that included Belgium’s consul general along with diplomats from France and Poland and Catholic Church representatives had traveled to the largely Christian village of Taybeh near Ramallah to assess the situation for Palestinians facing frequent settler attacks on their olive harvest. Video footage from the scene showed masked men confronting the convoy with stones thrown at the vehicles according to multiple reports. A Belgian consular car sustained a smashed window while the visiting French mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries Bernard Baudoux was thrown to the ground and assaulted by the group that arrived on all-terrain vehicles.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot condemned the assault in the strongest terms and confirmed that all members of the Belgian team remained safe after the incident. “As the occupying power Israeli authorities must protect Palestinians ensure the safety of diplomats and journalists and bring those responsible to justice” Prevot said in a statement. “Impunity for violent settlers must end” he added while pledging to press for European Union sanctions on those responsible and those who support them.
The event came one day after a separate settler attack in the nearby village of Abu Falah that injured Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine and at least 19 Palestinians according to local officials. A Reuters account from the French mayor described how masked assailants kicked him and struck him with iron bars while yelling defamatory comments about France. Israeli authorities have opened a police investigation with the military condemning the violence and providing protection for forensic teams gathering evidence at the scene.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the actions by what he termed rioters but noted that the diplomatic visit had not been coordinated with the military in advance. “Such coordination could have helped safeguard the visitors’ security” Saar said in a statement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described the reports as an alleged attack and cautioned that serious accusations require compelling evidence before conclusions are drawn.
According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs settler attacks linked to the olive harvest this season have already surpassed the total recorded for all of 2025. OCHA figures show nearly 200 such incidents resulting in one Palestinian killed more than 120 injured and damage to over 2,500 olive trees or saplings with around 80 percent occurring in the past two weeks. The UN body has noted that many farmers have started harvesting earlier than usual to reduce exposure to the violence.
UN assessments have placed overall settler violence in the West Bank at record levels in 2026 with more than 1,600 incidents causing casualties or property damage documented through mid-September. ACLED data records 203 shooting events involving settlers in the first eight months of the year the highest figure since monitoring began. The surge has affected 397 locations across the territory and contributed to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians this year according to UN humanitarian reports.
