Israel Arrests Its Own Settlers After International Outcry as Records Show Most Offenders Escape Punishment

Israeli occupation police arrested eight settlers at dawn on Monday on suspicion of involvement in attacks over the past two days in the occupied West Bank that targeted an American photographer and a European diplomatic delegation, according to what the occupation police announced.

The occupation police said the arrests came as part of an operation it called “Olive Branch,” carried out in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and accompanied by the occupation army. It noted that a number of vehicles suspected of being used in the attacks were confiscated and the detainees were transferred for interrogation. The occupation police did not announce the names of the detainees or the specific charges against them, confirming that the operation is ongoing.

The arrests came after masked settlers attacked American press photographer Heidi Levine, who works for The Washington Post, last Friday while she was covering the olive harvest season near the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. Press reports said Levine was beaten and kicked, sustained fractures and wounds including fractures in her back vertebrae, and underwent surgery on her hand.

The following day, masked settlers attacked a delegation that included diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland, along with a French mayor, church figures and activists, near the village of Al-Taybeh east of Ramallah, while they were taking part in an activity in solidarity with Palestinian farmers during the olive season. Father Bashar Fawadleh of the Al-Taybeh church said the settlers assaulted a number of delegation members and targeted the Belgian consul’s vehicle.

The attacks drew American and European condemnations; the US ambassador to the occupation described what happened to Levine as a “terrorist act” and demanded that those responsible be held accountable, while the European Union condemned the attacks on the diplomats and demanded that those involved be held accountable and effective measures taken to prevent the recurrence of violence against Palestinians and journalists. Belgium also demanded that the assailants be held accountable, and the possibility of imposing additional European sanctions on settlers involved in violence was raised.

On the other hand, press reports quoted the office of the occupation’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that the facts regarding the attack on Levine remain unclear, and it also indicated that the diplomatic delegation entered an area it described as sensitive without prior coordination with the occupation army, despite the emergence of filmed footage of the attack on its members.

In conjunction with the arrests, the occupation police announced that occupation army forces and border police were carrying out measures it said targeted unlicensed buildings, violations of military orders, and a case of illegal seizure of a Palestinian home, as part of the same operation.

The arrests come amid an escalation of settler attacks during the olive harvest season. The Israeli rights organization Yesh Din said settlers carried out at least 170 attacks since last September 27, according to press reports on October 17 and 18.

Yesh Din data on the occupation authorities’ handling of settler crimes shows that the vast majority of investigations do not end with bringing the accused to trial. In its report covering the period between 2005 and 2025, the organization said it followed investigation files opened by the occupation police into crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians or their property in the West Bank, including assault, shooting, stone-throwing, threats, arson, theft, destruction of crops and damage to property.

According to the report, 93.6% of the investigation files monitored by the organization were closed without indictments being filed, while the proportion of files that ended in full or partial convictions did not exceed 3%. The organization’s review also concluded that the occupation police failed to investigate 82% of the files included in the study, according to the criteria it adopted to assess the outcomes of investigations.

Yesh Din explained that its data is based on more than two decades of monitoring investigation files into attacks committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank, with the aim of assessing the extent to which the law is applied to suspects and of protecting Palestinians and their property. It said the continued closure of files without indictments reflects a continuing failure to enforce the law against the assailants.

The organization also documented about 30 incidents of organized mass violence in the West Bank between 2023 and November 2025, and said soldiers or police personnel were present during 16 of them, and that some of them helped in the attacks directly or indirectly, according to its report.

This data sheds light on the fate of investigations into attacks on Palestinians, at a time when the occupation police announce the arrest of eight settlers over the two latest attacks. So far, the occupation police have not announced the results of the investigation with the detainees or filed indictments against them, and the case remains open to investigat