Masked settlers target Washington Post journalist in latest attack on occupied West Bank

Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Clad in black balaclavas and armed with guns and clubs, dozens of militant Israeli settlers stormed a Palestinian olive harvest on Friday , hospitalising a Washington Post photographer and a Palestinian man in a coordinated attack caught on camera. Veteran conflict reporter Heidi Levine was among a group of journalists covering the harvest in Abu Falah village, a treasured annual tradition in the occupied West Bank , where deadly settler violence is at an all-time high. Andrey X, a journalist and activist, shared footage he took of the brutal attack which showed a group in masks relentlessly battering Levine, who is inert on the ground, with clubs. Speaking from a hospital bed later, Levine said she was “brutally attacked”, pushed to the ground and robbed of her camera gear, bag and phone. “Luckily I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me” she said, her voice shaking. She said they ripped all her belongings off her and kept kicking her. At one point she was helped to her feet and then knocked down again, she added. Andrey X told The Independent villagers had just started the harvest when at least 50 settlers descended on the grove, armed with slingshots, clubs and later automatic rifles. Reuters witnesses also reported the presence of guns. The attack continued after the military’s arrival, with Israeli soldiers shooting tear gas before a group of people armed with assault rifles started firing live ammunition, Andrey continued. “ Palestinians and journalists started pulling back but Heidi got left behind. They started beating her with clubs. They kicked her and took everything,” he said. Together with other journalists, he managed to extract Levine and get her to an ambulance even as they were chased by settlers who continued to throw rocks, while the army stood by. Later he said the Israeli military stormed the village of Abu Falah where soldiers reportedly shot a Palestinian man who had to be rushed to hospital. Palestinian medics said two people were injured and taken to hospitals in the Ramallah area. The Washington Post said that Levine was wearing “visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist”. “We are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from the authorities,” the paper added. Elisa Lees Muñoz, president of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), said: "The IWMF is gravely concerned for journalists covering conflict worldwide as they are increasingly viewed as targets themselves. Assaulting journalists... threatens both their lives and the public’s right to be informed. Such attacks underscore why independent reporting is essential and why those who produce it must be protected." The Israeli military said it and the Border Police were dispatched to the area following “reports of a violent confrontation” and claimed forces “acted to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means”. It added that it “strongly condemns the incident”. Pope Leo calls for end to violence against Palestinians amid surge in West Bank settler attacks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in saying the incident was “under investigation” and condemned violence but contradicted witness reports and video footage taken at the scene, claiming Palestinians and left-wing activists “confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths”. “We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonise the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of” the West Bank, he added. And it comes amid an unprecedented rise in deadly settler and military violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has spiked during the annual olive harvest. There have been at least 234 attacks related directly to the olive harvest since 27 September alone, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli settlements monitoring group. It added soldiers were documented as being present in more than a quarter of them. Military operations on Palestinian towns and refugee camps over the last few years has displaced tens of thousands of people, while checkpoints have had a stranglehold on movement. Israel seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War, an occupation which the International Court of Justice has deemed illegal and in defiance of the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood. Since then, Israel has built and expanded its settlements: the West Bank is now home to over 500,000 Israeli settlers who surround 3 million Palestinians living under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in increasingly scattered enclaves. Miliband: UK agrees that there is 'ethnic cleansing' in the West Bank In the wake of Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, and Israel’s unprecedented bombardment of Gaza, violence has soared, with the United Nations reporting that Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,140 Palestinians over the last three years alone. Settlers attacks have become increasingly brazen, emboldened by the extreme right-wing government of Netanyahu, which includes settlers as ministers and has overseen a rapid expansion of settlements and smaller outposts. Netanyahu has nominally criticised the violence but incidents have drawn international condemnation and sanction plans by longtime Israeli allies, including Britain. In September, the UK announced plans to introduce a ban on the trade of goods produced within Israeli settlements, prompting backlash from Israel. “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists,” Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said. This week the Jordanians warned that Israel is pushing the occupied West Bank “toward an explosion” that threatens the entire region, in a briefing note shared with The Independent that accused Israel of trying to recreate the security conditions of Gaza to force Palestinians from their land. “The far-right government in Israel is purposefully escalating the situation in the West Bank to enforce new geographic and demographic realities,” the document read, accusing Israel of trying to “prepare for a scenario of security chaos”. The Israeli military has refuted these claims and defended its actions in statements to The Independent claiming it is thwarting thousands of “terror attacks”.