A Washington Post photojournalist was among several people attacked by Israeli settlers while accompanying Palestinian villagers harvesting olives in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
“Dozens of masked settlers” set fire to shrubs and threw rocks in a “co-ordinated assault” on the villagers, the Post said. Freelancer Heidi Levine was wearing a protective vest clearly marked “Press” when she was attacked.
“She was knocked to the ground, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone,” the paper said.
Levine was later taken to hospital in Ramallah, where she was pictured lying on a trolley with a wound dressing on her left leg and a gash on her right knee, among other injuries.
“I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily I had [on] my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me,” she told reporters from the hospital.
Witnesses said they saw about 80 settlers, some carrying gas canisters, descending on the olive grove where Palestinians from Abu Falah village had gathered to pick the fruit, Reuters reported.
“The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes,” said Moutaz Abdelhadi, a farmer who witnessed the assault.
The Israeli military appeared but the attack continued. Rights groups, witnesses and victims have documented and recounted incidents where settlers were protected by the Israeli army.
Live gunfire was heard in the area and at least one settler was seen firing a gun, Reuters reported.
The harvest season officially began on Thursday but Palestinian farmers have been out in their groves for weeks, fearing thefts by Israeli settlers who are posting social media campaigns encouraging people to steal the olives.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since October 7, 2023, and last year reached the highest level recorded since 2006, the UN said.
September was the most violent month this year, but the attacks have risen sharply in October. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled) recorded an average of 39 incidents a day from October 1 to October 9, compared with around 20 per day in September.