Ramallah, Palestinian Territories: Israeli settlers on Friday attacked an American photojournalist working for The Washington Post while she was covering violence against Palestinian olive farmers in the occupied West Bank.
Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer, was taken to hospital in Ramallah following the attack, with AFP photos showing her lying on a gurney with injuries to her leg and hand.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, days ahead of elections in which he is seeking settlers’ support, insisted the circumstances behind the incident were unclear, in contrast with the full-throated condemnation offered by his chief rival.
The attack comes 10 days after settlers beat an AFP photographer covering the West Bank olive harvest, Jaafar Ashtiyeh, leaving him also requiring hospital treatment.
Speaking to journalists from her hospital bed, Levine said that “more than 50” masked settlers holding sticks suddenly attacked her while she was working near the Palestinian villages of Abu Falah and Turmus Ayya in the central West Bank.
“All of a sudden they jumped me and I luckily had my helmet and flak jacket on and I… kept my face to the ground to try to protect my face,” she said.
“They just kept kicking me and kicking me,” she added.
After receiving initial care in Ramallah, Levine was transferred to Israel’s Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where doctors found she had suffered four broken vertebrae and would need surgery.
The Washington Post said Levine had been wearing a flak jacket clearly marked “Press”.
“We are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities,” Matt Murray, the paper’s executive editor, said in a statement.
– ‘No mercy’ –
Netanyahu’s office said Levine had been “allegedly assaulted”, adding that the circumstances were “unclear and are under investigation”.
“Those responsible will be held accountable,” it said in an X post, giving a version of events in which “some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths”, with both sides throwing objects at the other.
Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main rival in the upcoming polls, blamed Friday’s “unacceptable” attack on a “handful of rioters” whose actions, he said, “stain an entire nation”.
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A US State Department official said it condemned “criminal violence by any party in the West Bank” and called for “legal accountability for those responsible”.
The official added the department had “reached out to the Washington Post to offer consular assistance”.
AFP did not witness the moment of the attack, but one of the agency’s journalists in the area saw Palestinian medics tending to someone on the ground and Israeli soldiers pushing away journalists trying to approach.
The Israeli military said troops and border police forces were deployed to the area “following a report of a violent confrontation”.
“A female journalist had been injured during the confrontation,” it said, adding the circumstances would be examined.
“Attacks and violence against innocent civilians are grave and unacceptable acts,” the military said.
The Israeli police said it had opened an investigation into incidents in Abu Falah and Turmus Ayya.
“We were on our land, picking olives, and suddenly the settlers came down on us and started hitting us, throwing stones,” said Mukhlis Zuhdi, a farmer from Abu Falah.
“There was even a foreign journalist whom they beat. These people have no mercy or compassion in their hearts,” he told AFP.
– ‘Brazen violence’ –
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the settlers stole Levine’s passport, phone, wallet and equipment.
“This is the latest in a long line of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and other civilians in the occupied West Bank,” it said.
Reporters Without Borders said it strongly condemned the attack and called on Israeli authorities to “put an end to this impunity and prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous assault”.
“This brazen violence… is evidence of the impunity with which extremist Jewish settlers operate, often under the protection of Israeli armed forces,” added the advocacy group, known by its French initials RSF.
Violence has flared in recent months in the West Bank, with near-daily attacks, thefts or vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
Excluding east Jerusalem, around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, alongside more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements considered illegal under international law.