US diplomats have visited a Christian Palestinian town in the West Bank following attacks by militant Israeli settlers on European diplomats and a US photojournalist in the previous two days.
Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, US ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch and a number of other diplomats visited the Latin Convent church and were expected to meet with members of the Christian community in Taybeh.
Belgian, French and Polish diplomats along with a French mayor and Palestinian civilians had been attacked near Taybeh on Saturday by masked Israeli settlers.
The previous day, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was taken to hospital after being assaulted while covering a Palestinian olive harvest near another West Bank village.
The diplomats' visit coincided with US President Donald Trump endorsing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel's parliamentary election on October 27.
United Nations bodies and most countries deem the settlements illegal under international law but Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed rather than occupied.
While Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Israeli military (IDF) both blamed "Israeli rioters" for the attack on the diplomats, Netanyahu, whose coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, has been more circumspect.
He has said the diplomats entered a "sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior co-ordination with the IDF" and that the facts of the attack on Levine are "unclear".
France urged Israeli authorities to arrest Saturday's attackers and to end criminal violence in the West Bank but by Sunday there was no announcement from Israeli authorities of any arrests in either of the two latest incidents.
The West Bank is home to about 500,000 settlers and at least 3 million Palestinians.
On Sunday, Reuters saw a group of at least 10 settlers, masked and dressed in black, hurling rocks at Palestinians and activists harvesting olives near the Palestinian West Bank town of Salfit, prompting the farmers to flee.
Israeli border police were in the area and shot tear gas towards the hills.
