ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Italian foreign ministry on Thursday called for the "immediate release" of five Italian citizens detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank, with the contingent having been arrested while accompanying Palestinian olive farmers to their harvest to prevent harassment by security forces and settlers.

"The [foreign ministry] is seeking information on the arrest of five Italian activists near the West Bank village of Al-Lubban al-Gharbiyye, while they were near Palestinian farmers harvesting olives. The Italians were arrested today as part of an operation that reportedly also involved other foreign nationals," said the Italian foreign ministry in a statement.

"According to available information, the five Italian nationals are currently being held at a police station."

There has been a sharp uptick in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with the incumbent government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having been vocally pro-settler and vowing to maintain the presence of illegal settlements in the territory.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in communities scattered across the West Bank, territory Israel has occupied since 1967. These settlements are deemed illegal under international law.

As a result of unchecked settler violence, several NGOs and international activists have sought to document the ongoing attacks. On Saturday, another five Italian citizens were deported from the West Bank by Israel after they joined Palestinian olive farmers, with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani rejecting the move as "unacceptable" and insisting that the activists had "committed no crime."

The EU in May imposed sanctions on several "extremist Israeli settlers and organizations which support them" on account of their involvement in "serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank."

On October 17, a delegation of French, Belgian, and Polish diplomats were attacked in the Christian village of Taybeh by a group of masked settlers as they accompanied Palestinian farmers to their harvest, with Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, being beaten with metal bars.