WASHINGTON, Oct 17 — The United States (US) wants Israel to do more to deter attacks committed by settlers in the West Bank, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday.
"We are very disturbed by those images and what we are seeing. We have asked the Israelis and continue to ask them to crack down on that stuff," he said.
Rubio's comments to the media came after the widespread dissemination of video showing multiple individuals attacking Heidi Levine, an American photojournalist with The Washington Post.
She was one of at least two people injured in the Friday incident, which took place as Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilians.
Belgium's Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said that European diplomats and a French mayor were also attacked in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Rubio said that the US State Department has inquired about the event that included Levine's attack. Before boarding a flight to Uzbekistan, he told the media that he expects to hear back from the US Embassy in Jerusalem by Sunday.
According to Israeli settlements monitoring group Yesh Din, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been involved in at least 170 attacks on Palestinians since September 27, around the start of the annual olive harvest.
