RAMALLAH (Dispatches) -- 
Israeli settlers escalated their assault on Palestinian olive harvesters across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, cutting down 120 olive trees, blocking farmers from their groves and stealing crops.
Meanwhile, the European Union issued a forceful condemnation of the weekend attack on its diplomats by club-wielding settlers and demanded full accountability.
The diplomats—including Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish representatives, and a French mayor—were attacked Saturday in the Christian village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, while visiting during the olive harvest. 
Seven masked settlers armed with clubs surrounded their convoy, smashed the window of a Belgian consular vehicle and demanded identification. 
Bernard Baudoux, the 78-year-old mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France, was thrown to the ground and beaten with iron bars.
“They arrived completely enraged,” Baudoux said. Amit Orfali, an activist with the delegation, said the attackers “threatened to kill us.”
On Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc “strongly condemns the latest attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank, including on European diplomats,” demanding “full accountability” and effective measures to prevent further violence against Palestinians, journalists and diplomats during the ongoing olive harvest. 
Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, said “impunity for violent settlers must end” and pledged to press for EU sanctions.
Israel’s military and police said they had opened an investigation, but announced no arrests. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the accounts, alleging a “coordinated campaign to smear Israel” during the olive harvest.
The violence continued unabated on Sunday. In Kisan, southeast of Bethlehem, settlers cut down 120 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian landowner. In the Wadi al-Sha’er area of Salfit and Nabi Salih near Hebron (Al-Khalil), settlers prevented farmers from reaching their groves. 
In Majdal Bani Fadil, south of Nablus, settlers severed electricity poles and stole roughly two kilometers of cable, blacking out the village. In Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, settlers raided agricultural land and stole olives from the trees.
The attacks are part of a documented surge. According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli forces and settlers carried out 5,561 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank from the start of 2026 through the end of September, including 647 settler attacks in September alone that destroyed or uprooted 14,600 trees, among them 9,334 olive trees. 
A UN inquiry has found that Israeli authorities fuel settler violence through financial, military and legal backing, in a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at annexation.