Nine of the 10 suspects arrested in an investigation into militant settler attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats have been released from custody and placed under house arrest, according to Honenu, a right-wing law firm that represents settlers.
Masked Israeli settlers were filmed last week assaulting Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as she covered a Palestinian olive harvest in the occupied West Bank. On Saturday, French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and a French mayor were attacked by masked settlers in another part of the West Bank.
The 10 suspects were detained after the United States called for a crackdown on settler violence and for arrests following the attack on Levine. France, Belgium and Poland also urged Israel, which holds a parliamentary election next week, to take action.
Honenu said late on Wednesday that a Jerusalem court had ordered nine of the 10 suspects released to house arrest. Israeli police said only one suspect remained in custody and that the investigation into the violent incidents continued.
Such arrests are rare. Several Israeli rights groups say most militant settler attacks in the West Bank are carried out with impunity. Yonatan Kanonich, head of research at the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, said that in the vast majority of attacks against Palestinians no arrests are made at all, and that in cases which receive media coverage police arrest several settlers and release most of them shortly afterward.
The attacks followed a mounting wave of militant Israeli settler violence during the Palestinian olive harvest. Yesh Din has reported 125 physical attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters over the 24 days since the season began. The attacks often include stone-throwing, physical assault and sometimes shooting. Levine was taken to hospital after she was attacked and underwent surgery on a finger.
Israeli settlers have killed at least 30 Palestinians since the beginning of the year, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presided over a rapid expansion of settlements. UN bodies and most countries deem Israel’s settlements on land occupied in war illegal under international law regarding military occupations. Israel rejects this and views the territory as disputed rather than occupied.