Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, journalists in West Bank harvest

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and journalists near Abu Falah during the West Bank olive harvest on Oct. 16, with photojournalist Heidi Levine saying she saw at least 50 masked men, ABC News reported.

The incident puts renewed focus on Israeli security enforcement in the occupied territory, where Israeli organisation Yesh Din said 170 attacks had occurred since late September, when the annual harvest began.

ABC News reported that rocks were fired from slingshots from higher ground around Abu Falah, north of Ramallah. The report said some settlers also ignited olive trees, sending smoke across the area.

Levine, a veteran Washington Post photojournalist, was wearing protective gear marked “press” when she was attacked, according to the report. Her camera and phone were taken, and other journalists helped her after settlers briefly withdrew before she was taken to hospital in Ramallah.

“We saw in the distance in the hilltop, I would say at least 50 masked men,” Levine told journalists in hospital. “Luckily, I had my flak jacket and my helmet. Otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here because they just kept kicking me, and kicking me in, like, probably 50 times.”

Witnesses cited by ABC News reported that Israel Defense Forces soldiers who arrived in the area fired tear gas at Palestinians. The IDF said its troops used riot-control measures to break up the confrontation and that it would examine “all circumstances surrounding the incident”.

“Upon arriving at the scene, the forces acted to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means,” the IDF said. It also said soldiers fired warning shots at another location and then shot toward a suspect who it said ran at them with a sharp object and posed a threat.

The IDF said it “strongly condemns this incident” and treats violence with “utmost severity”. Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray told staff the newspaper was “outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job” and would press for an investigation.

The olive harvest is economically important for Palestinians and regularly brings them into contact with settlers in rural areas of the West Bank. Palestinians say they experience the main burden of settler violence, while attacks on foreign journalists tend to draw wider attention because media witnesses are present.

ABC News said the episode followed by one week an attack by settlers on an AFP photographer in the West Bank. Humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, have reported a rise in settler violence since October 2023, according to the report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned settler violence in the West Bank, while repeatedly describing it as the work of a small number of lawbreakers, ABC News reported. At least half a million Israelis live in settlements across the West Bank, whose presence is considered illegal under international law.

The IDF’s pledged examination is the known next step after the Oct. 16 incident near Abu Falah.