The Israeli military sat on distress calls it received from activists about settler violence in the occupied West Bank for two hours, according to a report.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Saturday that the occupation army received calls for help as early as 1 p.m. local time, but the civil administration and troops on the ground were informed only around 3 p.m., when the assault by extremist settlers had ended.

An activist accompanying local Palestinians had sent the Israeli military a video and the exact location of the settler attack, saying, “At least seven masked settlers armed with clubs. Come quickly, very scary. They stole bags of olives from Palestinians,” according to the report.

It also noted that the Israeli army has opened a probe to examine the chain of events and why nothing was done in real time to prevent the violence.

On Saturday, masked Israeli settlers attacked European diplomats in the Palestinian village of Taybeh, near the city of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

The delegation, which included Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters when it was confronted by the settlers.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot denounced the attack as “outrageous,” urging the Zionist regime to arrest those responsible immediately.

“They must urgently halt this criminal violence and guarantee the safety of civilian populations, as they are compelled to do under international law,” he said in an X post.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Development Cooperation of Belgium, Maxime Prévot, condemned the violence against Palestinians, foreign diplomats and journalists, and said his country would continue to push for European Union sanctions on settlers.

“Harvesting olives, reporting the news or carrying out diplomatic duties should never put anyone at risk of attack,” he added. “This violence cannot be separated from Israel’s illegal settlement policy … the occupation of the Palestinian territory must end.”

Escorted by the occupation forces, Israeli settlers have increased their attacks against Palestinian farmers since the olive harvest season began in early October.

The assaults involved abducting and beating Palestinians, forcing them off their lands, stealing their crops, and uprooting their trees.

Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh said the attack is “a miniature model of the scale of the daily terrorism to which our Palestinian people are subjected, and it requires a firm international stance that imposes international protection for the Palestinian people.”

Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, has documented 486 incidents of settler and soldier violence in the West Bank between September 27 and October 14, including 234 directly related to the olive harvest.

"The lack of law enforcement against violent settlers and soldiers who attack Palestinian olive harvesters, damage olive trees, and steal the harvest indicates that the obstruction of the olive harvest is part of a broader, systematic Israeli policy aimed at inflicting economic and cultural harm on Palestinians and displacing them from their land," it said in a statement on X.