Cars carrying U.S. diplomats investigating whether Israeli settlers on the West Bank had destroyed a Palestinian olive grove were hit with rocks by the settlers on Friday.

Five thousand olive saplings were planted on land in Adei Ad that until recently was under dispute in the area inhabited by Palestinians, but under increasing encroachment by settlers who want to claim the area for Israel. The saplings were uprooted. The Palestinians cultivating the plot suspected that it was done by the settlers and complained to U.S. consular authorities.

Israeli officials acknowledged the attack on the U.S. officials. “Rocks were thrown at them by residents of Adei Ad. We are investigating. Arrests have yet to be made,” a spokeswoman said, according to Haaretz. She also said the U.S. visit was made without coordinating with Israeli authorities.

Settlers claim security guards for the convoy briefly leveled weapons at the crowd that approached the U.S. officials. “One had a pistol, the other an M-16, and they pointed them at the settlers,” one person told Reuters. Israeli officials couldn’t confirm that account, however.

Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein, who was in Adei Ad to help plant the trees, died there last month after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers during protests. A Palestinian autopsy found that the cause of death for Abu Ein was that he’d been shot by an Israeli soldier, but an Israeli investigation claimed he died from stress-related heart problems.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Settlers Throw Stones at U.S. Consulate Convoy in West Bank (by Chaim Levinson, Haaretz)

U.S. Security Guards Draw Weapons After Diplomatic Convoy Attacked by West Bank Settlers (Reuters)

McDonald’s Refuses to Open Branch in West Bank Mall (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)