Washington Post photographer beaten during West Bank olive harvest attacks

Reuters journalists at Abu Falah saw masked Israeli settlers come down from a hill towards villagers gathering olives on Friday 16 October. The attackers threw stones and set olive trees alight. Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was knocked to the ground and beaten while covering the attack, according to her employer and video reviewed by CBS News. [3] [4] [6]

Levine was wearing a vest marked “PRESS”. The Washington Post said she was treated for a broken rib, four broken vertebrae and cuts, and would need surgery on an injured hand. CBS reported that the Palestine Red Crescent Society treated three Palestinians at Abu Falah. At nearby Turmus Ayya, Reuters reported that settlers burned three cars after attacking olive harvesters; the Palestinian news agency WAFA said the Red Crescent took four injured Palestinians from Burqa to hospital. [4] [6] [3] [2]

The shooting of a Palestinian man at Abu Falah has prompted conflicting accounts. A Reuters photographer saw at least one armed settler fire a gun, but that observation does not establish who wounded the man. The Israeli military said its personnel fired towards someone they believed was threatening them with a sharp object. A village council member told the Associated Press that the wounded man, Abdel Jaber Hassan, had been carrying olive-harvesting tools. [3] [5]

Reuters also saw Israeli soldiers fire tear gas towards Palestinians after troops arrived. WAFA accused the forces of protecting the settler attacks, while an Israeli military spokesperson told The Washington Post that soldiers had not seen Levine being assaulted and that their conduct was under investigation. Witnesses gave differing accounts of when troops arrived in relation to her beating. [3] [2] [4] [7]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the circumstances were still unclear and called for an investigation into who began the violence. CBS described footage showing masked men throwing stones and Palestinians then throwing stones back. The footage does not capture every moment of the confrontation, but the return of stones does not negate the eyewitness accounts of attackers descending on the olive grove. [4] [6] [3]

The assault came during a harvest on which many Palestinian families depend. The UN documented more than 1,600 settler attacks causing injury or property damage in the West Bank between January and August, according to The Washington Post. [4]