The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, condemned on October 19, 2026 the attack on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as an act of terror and called for a full investigation, on the same day that Israeli police detained 10 suspects over the wave of settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
The arrests took place in the early hours of Monday, October 19 and, according to Al Jazeera, the suspects face allegations of acts of violence, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction; Army radio said all are Israeli citizens and police did not release their identities. The episode comes during a rise in settler violence during the annual olive harvest, against a backdrop of international condemnations and British sanctions on settlement products. For Mexico and Latin America, the case offers a reference point on how Washington publicly recalibrates its relationship with a strategic partner when a complaint of violence against the press is at stake.
Levine, 63, with more than four decades of coverage in the region, was assaulted on Friday, October 16 for more than 10 minutes, according to her account reported by The Guardian; she suffered broken ribs and vertebrae, surgery on a nearly severed finger and stitches for wounds that appeared to be from a bladed weapon. A day later, masked settlers attacked diplomatic delegations from France, Belgium and Poland in the Christian village of Taybeh, and all three countries asked Israel to act. According to Al Jazeera, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Army attributed those events to Israeli rioters, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the facts of the assault on Levine as unclear and his coalition is projected to lose its majority in the October 27 election.
Huckabee described the detentions as a positive step toward finding and punishing those who attacked the photojournalist. Levine said the attack did not break her spirit. Attention centers on the police investigation the ambassador urged be pursued to its final consequences and on the October 27 election, which will define the governing coalition.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.