Israeli settlers attack European diplomats

Masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Belgium’s foreign minister said, on a second day of high-profile assaults on Palestinians and others during the sensitive olive harvest.

The attacks came less than two weeks before closely contested elections that could end the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s time in office. His government, the most nationalist and far right in Israel’s history, faces domestic and international criticism over security failures and the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel’s military called Saturday’s attack on the diplomats a “severe act of violence” but said the visit had not been coordinated with it and no soldiers were at the scene.