US officials visit Palestinian village after settler attacks on diplomats

American diplomats journeyed to a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank on Sunday, in response to recent assaults by extremist Israeli settlers on European diplomats and a US photojournalist. The delegation, comprising assistant secretary of state Riley Barnes, US ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, and numerous other diplomats, paid a visit to the Latin Convent church in Taybeh.

Other attendees included Belgian, French, and Polish diplomats, along with a French mayor and Palestinian civilians. The incident in Taybeh followed attacks on Saturday, where masked Israeli settlers assaulted Belgian, French, and Polish diplomats near the village, as well as Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, who required medical attention after being assaulted while reporting on a Palestinian olive harvest in another West Bank location.

These diplomatic visits occurred concurrently with US President Donald Trump endorsing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel's upcoming parliamentary election on October 27. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took part in a settler conference in the West Bank on Sunday. Huckabee, a devout Christian and long-standing advocate for Israel, had previously called for those responsible for the attack on the Washington Post photojournalist, a US citizen, to face imprisonment.

Despite Trump's expressed opposition to settlement expansion this year, his administration has exerted minimal pressure on Netanyahu's right-wing, pro-settler government to alter its policies.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa ar and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) both attributed the attack on the diplomats to Israeli rioters. However, Netanyahu, whose coalition faces the loss of its governing majority, has been more reserved in his stance. He claimed that the diplomats entered a "sensitive area with a history of confrontations" without prior coordination with the IDF, and that the facts surrounding the assault on Levine remain "unclear."

France called for Israeli authorities to apprehend the attackers and put an end to criminal violence in the West Bank, but as of Sunday, there had been no announcements of any arrests in either of the recent incidents.