Israeli court releases nine settler suspects over West Bank attacks as investigations into recent assaults continue.
Published On ۲۲ Oct ۲۰۲۶
Israel has released nine of the ۱۰ Israeli settler suspects arrested over attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, placing them under house arrest.
An Israeli court in Jerusalem ordered the release late on Wednesday, according to Honenu, a law firm that represents Israeli settlers.
Recommended Stories
list of ۳ itemsend of list
Israeli police said one suspect remained in custody and that the investigation into the violent incidents was continuing.
Masked settlers were filmed last week assaulting Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photojournalist covering a Palestinian olive harvest who was taken to hospital and underwent surgery on a finger.
In a separate attack earlier this week, masked settlers assaulted French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and a French mayor in another part of the West Bank.
The suspects had been detained after the United States called for a crackdown on settler violence. France, Belgium and Poland also urged Israel to act.
“In the vast majority of attacks against Palestinians, no arrests are made at all,” said Yonatan Kanonich, head of research at the Israeli rights group Yesh Din. “In cases that receive media coverage … the police arrest several settlers and release most of them shortly afterward.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X Thursday that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory was “out of control”, with Palestinians continuing “to suffer daily attacks by Israeli settlers” and journalists and diplomats also being attacked.
Guterres called for “a credible political path towards lasting peace”.
Separately, the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission on Thursday said it documented ۱۷ West Bank pogroms by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian farmers and their land during the olive harvest.
The commission recorded ۴۰۹ attacks in October, ۳۱۷ of which were by settlers and ۹۲ by Israeli forces.
Nablus recorded the most attacks, ۱۶۶, followed by Salfit with ۹۱.
The commission said the attacks included assaults on farmers, preventing them from reaching their land, theft of crops and agricultural equipment, damage and burning of olive trees, as well as arrests, threats at gunpoint and live fire.
Ali Hassan Bazzari from Burqa died of wounds from settler gunfire while picking olives on October ۷, the commission reported.
On Thursday, settlers set fire to olive trees near Imatin, east of Qalqilya, while Israeli forces forced farmers to leave and detained a farmer and several of his workers, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Near Yabad, west of Jenin, settlers stole ۱۷ bags of harvested olives and equipment, local sources said.
Citing a local Palestinian official, Wafa reported that around Jenin, Israeli forces closed transport roads and most village gates, preventing farmers from reaching land in Barta’a.
