Israel’s police blame the diplomats while Netanyahu demands evidence as settlers beat a French mayor

Full analysis

What happened Why it matters How each country tells it Where accounts conflict Room for disagreement Our assessment Sources and evidence

What happened

On October 17, masked Israeli settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats in Taybeh, a Christian Palestinian village northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, beating Bernard Baudoux, the 78-year-old mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France, and smashing the window of a vehicle belonging to the Belgian Consulate. The delegation included the French and Belgian consuls, a Polish representative and Catholic Church officials. Baudoux had come for the olive harvest, wearing his tricolor sash, alongside the French consul general and a priest from his town to sign a cooperation agreement between his municipality and Taybeh.

A diplomat present told Ynetnews that villagers had invited diplomats to the harvest for protection. When word came that settlers were approaching, the party got into cars; the diplomat said he saw masked settlers with sticks and metal crowbars running at them. Seven men aged 20 and older, apparently summoned from farther away, kicked the mayor and shouted "Viva la France" after recognizing the French flag, then attacked the Belgian vehicle. Baudoux told Agence France-Presse that two or three cars arrived, their occupants shouting insults against France, and that he was thrown to the ground and beaten with iron bars. Helped up by the priest, he had no serious injuries and continued his visit. He said the violence was gratuitous and certain to remain unpunished because the Israeli government tolerates the settlers.

Footage shared by a diplomat showed Baudoux slumped on the ground against a car, and photographs documented the Belgian Consulate vehicle’s shattered window. The Prime Minister’s Office, carried by The Jerusalem Post, conceded that published footage shows masked individuals confronting a diplomatic vehicle but said "serious accusations require serious evidence" and that the images alone do not establish the full sequence of events or individual responsibility. The statement said the delegation entered a sensitive area without prior IDF coordination, noted Baudoux has a Communist Party background and once flew a Palestinian flag over his town hall, and warned of a smear campaign during the olive harvest.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar "strongly condemned the severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters in the area of Taybeh" but called the lack of coordination "unfortunate"; opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot called it "Jewish terror under the auspices of the government." Anadolu Agency, citing Israeli army radio, reported troops and police arrived three hours after receiving the delegation’s location and footage, sent within minutes; the IDF told the Post that no soldiers were present and the report went to an operations room "designated to receive reports from security personnel only, and not from civilians."

Ynetnews, citing police sources, reported that no suspects have been arrested in either Saturday’s attack or Friday’s assault on Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine in Abu Falah, as of Sunday morning. Police accused the European missions of failing to cooperate, saying requests for testimony, video, vehicle access and forensic evidence made through the Foreign Ministry had not been met. West Bank District commander Moshe Pinchi is overseeing both investigations, assigned to the district’s central unit with the Shin Bet.

Why it matters

The attack came a day after another settler assault. As TIB reported earlier, masked settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters and beat Heidi Levine on Friday; Ynetnews reports she underwent hand surgery Saturday, with a finger cut to the bone and tendon, plus a broken rib and vertebral fractures. Taybeh is the last entirely Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank, and residents have reported repeated attacks on homes, vehicles and farmland, with families leaving; in July 2025 rioters burned a cemetery and desecrated a church there.

For foreign governments, the incident gives the sanctions debate a concrete, high-level target. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said Belgium will keep pushing for EU sanctions on those responsible and their supporters, adding that the attacks cannot be separated from Israel’s illegal settlement policy. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot demanded arrests and prosecutions; Poland condemned the incident; and after Friday’s attack, U.S. officials Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio said they were disturbed and pressed Israel to crack down. Opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman warned that failure to curb the attackers is eroding international support for Israel. Domestically, the government challenges the evidence, the police blame the victims, and the opposition calls it terror under the government’s auspices: the response itself is part of the test of whether Israel will hold its own citizens accountable.

How each country tells it

• 🇮🇱
  Ynetnews · Israel · original reporting

  Leads with police accusing European diplomatic missions of failing to cooperate and reports no arrests, framing the investigation as stalled by the victims rather than by the rioters.
• 🇮🇱
  The Jerusalem Post · Israel · original reporting

  Puts Netanyahu’s full “serious accusations require serious evidence” statement beside Gadi Eisenkot’s “Jewish terror under the auspices of the government” charge and Gideon Sa’ar’s qualified condemnation, exposing the domestic political split.
• 🇫🇷
  L’Indépendant · France · wire copy

  Runs Bernard Baudoux’s own account to AFP, centered on his accusation that the Netanyahu government tolerates settler violence and that the assault will go unpunished.
• 🇹🇷
  Anadolu Agency · Turkey · original reporting

  Frames the story as a credibility conflict, leading with a European diplomat rebutting Netanyahu — “The facts are clear. We were attacked” — and adding Avigdor Lieberman’s warning that inaction erodes Israel’s standing.
• 🇶🇦
  The Peninsula · Qatar · wire copy

  A bare witness-based AFP account that the convoy was attacked and the French mayor beaten, treating the attack as fact with none of the Israeli political dispute.

Where accounts conflict

The central disputed fact is whether the delegation broke a rule by visiting Taybeh without coordinating with the Israeli military. Members of the European delegation told Ynetnews: "Taybeh is in Area B, and visits there do not require coordination. Diplomats visit frequently, and the military has never escorted them or required prior coordination." A diplomat quoted by KAN and carried by Anadolu made the same point, noting that Israel retains security responsibility in Area B. The Prime Minister’s Office and Gideon Sa’ar insist on the opposite frame: the PMO said the delegation "entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination with the IDF, as officially confirmed by the military," and called such coordination "essential to protecting visiting diplomats"; Sa’ar said it was unfortunate the visit was not coordinated and that coordination "could have helped safeguard the visitors’ security." Whether the diplomats were at fault for being there is the hinge on which Israel’s effort to shift responsibility turns, and the two accounts cannot both be right about the protocol.

Room for disagreement

The strongest case that this story will end differently runs through the institutions Israel has now put on the case. The police say their central investigative unit is working with the Shin Bet, with Moshe Pinchi personally overseeing both investigations, and Sa’ar said law enforcement is working to identify the attackers and bring them to justice. Investigators have asked for video, testimony and access to the vehicles, and the diplomatic victims are senior European officials from three countries whose governments are already pressing for arrests; Belgium is explicitly pushing for EU sanctions. Against that pressure, Israel may conclude that the political cost of letting the attackers go is higher than the political cost of prosecuting settlers. A high-profile arrest would also blunt the European sanctions push and answer the American demand for a crackdown. If investigators identify and detain the seven men the diplomat described, the event would become the turning point that Friday’s attack on Heidi Levine was not.