Poland says diplomats unharmed after West Bank settler assault

European diplomats said they were assaulted by Israeli settlers while visiting the occupied West Bank on Saturday, and a police investigation is underway. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the group included representatives from France, Belgium and Poland.

Israeli police said they launched the inquiry after footage circulating online appeared to show several diplomats being attacked near the village of Taybeh. The statement said efforts were underway to locate the victims and identify the suspects with the aim of bringing them to justice. "The Israel Police condemns violence of any kind and will pursue these investigations to their full extent, ensuring that everyone involved in such incidents is brought to justice," the statement said.

Israel's military condemned the "severe act of violence" in which diplomatic representatives were "attacked by Israeli rioters." It said the diplomats' visit had not been coordinated with the military and that no soldiers were at the scene.

Poland's foreign ministry confirmed the incident on social media. It said its representatives were unharmed and that, based on information currently available, "there is no indication that they were specifically targeted." It added: "According to preliminary information, Israeli settlers may have been responsible for the incident."

"We are deeply outraged by this incident and condemn it in the strongest possible terms," the ministry said on X. "Poland has consistently opposed violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Attacks against members of the diplomatic corps are absolutely unacceptable." It said Poland remains in close contact with partners to establish the full circumstances.

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot wrote on X that Israeli settlers targeted Belgium's consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives. "A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged. Our team is safe," he wrote. He linked the attack to what he called Israel's "illegal settlement policy" and called on Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians as the "occupying power." "Harvesting olives, reporting the news or carrying out diplomatic duties should never put anyone at risk of attack," he said. CBS News has reached out to Belgium's consul general in Jerusalem and to Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, told Agence France-Presse that he was attacked during a goodwill visit to Taybeh. "The whole world needs to know what's happening there," he said. "For me, I'll go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here." He said he did not suffer serious injuries. He said the attackers kicked him, beat him with iron bars and threw him to the ground. "It's the gratuitous nature of the violence that stuns me," he said. "They arrived completely enraged."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said any violence against diplomats is unacceptable and urged caution before drawing conclusions. "The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence," the statement said. The office said the delegation "entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations" without prior coordination with the Israeli military, and that such coordination is "essential to protecting visiting diplomats and preventing violence."

The office said the footage shows masked individuals confronting a diplomatic vehicle and that images alone do not establish the "complete sequence of events or individual responsibility." It said the reports come "amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest, relying on sensational headlines before the full facts emerge." It added that further allegations may appear in the coming days and that reputational damage from premature conclusions may already be done by the time the evidence is fully examined. The office also said Baudoux previously raised the Palestinian flag over the Aulnoye-Aymeries municipal building, "prompting French authorities to order its removal."

Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged in recent years, particularly after Israel's current hard-right government took office in late 2022, according to the United Nations humanitarian office. Activists say authorities do little to stop it, particularly during this year's olive harvest. Netanyahu has in the past condemned the violence and vowed a crackdown on what he says is a small group of several hundred wayward youths responsible for attacks on Palestinians. Human rights groups and critics say the government is complicit, that his condemnation appears to be posturing, that the military often intervenes on the settlers' side and that perpetrators are rarely prosecuted.

Saturday's attack followed a similar incident on Friday in which several people were seriously injured, including freelance American photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was working with The Washington Post. On Saturday she was undergoing surgery on a finger that was nearly detached from her hand, her daughter Ashley Milner told the Associated Press. Milner said Levine also has a broken rib, multiple broken vertebrae and lacerations. Israel's police and military said they had opened investigations into Friday's incident.