Washington Post says photographer attacked by Israeli settlers

The Washington Post’s executive editor said Friday that Israeli settlers attacked one of its photojournalists, who was working on assignment in the West Bank.

“She was wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist,” Matt Murray wrote in a statement shared to social platform X. “We are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job.”

A video capturing the incident — shared by the Post — appeared to show masked Israeli settlers attacking photographer Heidi Levine while she was on the ground, kicking her in the stomach. Separate posts by independent journalist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, a pro-Palestinian activist, alleged the assailants also beat her with sticks.

“They took everything. They took all my stuff,” Levine said in the video when Khrzhanovskiy and other nearby journalists came to her aid. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times.”

After a few moments, the masked settlers began chasing Levine and the group that helped her.

Levine’s alleged assault was a part of masked settlers’ attack on a West Bank village’s annual harvest, where the attackers reportedly burned olive trees and threw rocks at Palestinians, according to Reuters, citing witnesses to the incident. The bystanders told the publication that 80 masked people carrying gas canisters had descended upon the gathering.

Palestinian medics treated Levine at a hospital in Ramallah, a city north of Jerusalem, Murray said. He added that she is now “safe.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack in a Friday morning statement, saying, “Israel unequivocally condemns violence against anyone—Jews, Arabs, Christians or journalists. Those responsible will be held accountable.”

But Netanyahu also called into question who started the encounter, as “reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths,” he said.

The Israeli prime minister added that “masked individuals on both sides [were] hurling objects” and other recordings appear “to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual.”

“The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence,” he concluded. 

The Israeli military and Israel Border Police similarly decried the incident and confirmed its forces had responded to it, saying, “All details of the incident will be examined. Upon arriving to the scene, the forces acted to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means.”

“At another location where the confrontation took place, IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers initially fired warning shots into the air and then fired toward a suspect who ran toward them, carrying a sharp object and posed a threat to them. The confrontation was dispersed,” the Israeli military stated.