US diplomats on Sunday visited Taybeh, a Christian Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, following attacks by Israeli settlers on European diplomats and an American photojournalist in separate incidents over two days.
The delegation included Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, and Brian Burch, US Ambassador to the Holy See. They visited the Latin Convent church and were expected to meet members of the Christian community.
The visit followed an attack on Belgian, French and Polish diplomats, a French mayor and Palestinian civilians near Taybeh on Saturday by masked Israeli settlers.
A day earlier, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was taken to hospital after being assaulted while covering a Palestinian olive harvest near another West Bank village.
READ ALSO:Â Austria Expels Three Russian Diplomats Over Alleged Espionage
The diplomatic visit coincided with US President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s parliamentary election scheduled for October 27.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended a settler conference in the West Bank on Sunday.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and longtime supporter of Israel, had earlier called on X for the people responsible for attacking Levine, a US citizen, to be jailed.
Netanyahu Faces Calls to Address Settler Violence
Although Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Israeli military blamed Israeli rioters for the attack on the diplomats, Netanyahu adopted a more cautious position.
The Israeli prime minister said the diplomats had entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination with the Israeli military. He also said the circumstances surrounding the assault on Levine remained unclear.
France called on Israeli authorities to arrest those responsible for Saturday’s attack and take action to end criminal violence in the West Bank. However, no arrests had been announced by Sunday in either of the two incidents.
Trump has opposed the annexation of the West Bank, but his administration has faced criticism for exerting limited pressure on Netanyahu’s right-wing, pro-settler government to change its policies.
The United Nations and most countries consider Israeli settlements in the territory illegal under international law, a position Israel rejects, arguing that the land is disputed rather than occupied.
The West Bank is home to about 500,000 Israeli settlers and at least three million Palestinians.
Settler attacks against Palestinians have increased, with at least 170 incidents recorded since September 27, according to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Journalists, activists and foreign observers have also been targeted, while prosecutions of Israeli settlers remain rare.
On Sunday, Reuters witnessed at least 10 masked settlers dressed in black throwing stones at Palestinians and activists harvesting olives near the West Bank town of Salfit, forcing the farmers to flee.
Israeli border police were present in the area and fired tear gas towards the hills.
