Israeli settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the West Bank and beat up a visiting French mayor on Saturday (Oct 17), witnesses said, while United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned against a brewing "crisis" in the territory a day after an American photojournalist was injured in a brutal attack.

Violence is surging ahead of bitterly fought Oct 27 elections, coinciding with Palestinians' annual olive harvest which has been repeatedly disrupted by Israeli settlers as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to shore up his pro-settlement right-wing base.

On Saturday, the 78-year-old mayor said masked settlers yelled defamatory comments about France and kicked and hit him with iron bars as he joined Palestinian olive farmers in the West Bank alongside top French and Belgian representatives in Jerusalem and Polish diplomats.

"I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government," Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, told AFP after he was attacked.

"The whole world needs to know what's happening," he said.

"For me, I'll go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here."

Baudoux, who was wearing a sash with the French tricolour, was seen collapsed on the side of the car after the attack, but he did not need hospital care.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement that Israel must "urgently halt criminal violence" and arrest those responsible for attacking Baudoux, while his Belgian counterpart issued a similar call.

The attack came just one day after settlers beat up Heidi Levine, an American photographer for The Washington Post, who was in a moderate condition on Saturday after suffering broken vertebrae.

"We're very disturbed by those images and what we're seeing," Rubio told reporters Saturday, adding that US President Donald Trump "does not want to see friction or anything - a crisis going on in the West Bank."

Trump "doesn't want to see a new spark", Rubio added.