Masked Israeli settlers beat and rob Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine in West Bank

Israeli settlers on Friday beat an American photojournalist working for The Washington Post while she was covering ongoing 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 incident 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. The Washington Post reported that Levine had been wearing a flak jacket with “Press” clearly marked on the front and back. A spokesman for the US embassy in Jerusalem said it was aware of reports of the attack, declining to comment further due to privacy laws. “We have no higher responsibility than protecting American citizens,” he said. 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 claimed troops and border police forces were deployed to the area “following a report of a violent confrontation”. “Foreign media personnel were present at the scene and 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 Mukhllis 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. “Yet our repeated calls for action to confront this lawlessness have been ignored by Israeli authorities,” it added. 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. Settlers have also been seizing olive groves owned by Palestinians, who see the trees as a cultural symbol. 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.

Palestinians wounded, US journalist hospitalised after coordinated attack by masked Israeli setters Submitted by MEE staff on Fri, 10/16/2026 - 14:29 Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine said she was kicked to the ground and beaten 'probably 50 times' by settlers clad in black Heidi Levine, a photojournalist with the Washington Post, speaks to journalists at the hospital after sustaining multiple injuries during an attack by Israeli militant settlers on Palestinians harvesting olives, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank (Reuters) Off Palestinians attempting to gather their olive harvests and an American photojournalist have been wounded in an attack by a masked mob of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses reported that some 80 settlers, masked and clad in black, descended on the village of Abu Falah in northeast Ramallah, slinging rocks at Palestinian families picking olives and setting the groves alight. Video footage circulated online showed Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine being knocked to the ground and repeatedly beaten by settlers with sticks.  The reporter was hospitalised after the incident, along with another Palestinian, medics said. Speaking from her hospital bed with a bandaged hand and her voice shaking, Levine told reporters: "I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me, probably fifty times. "After like 10 minutes they tried to get me stand up and then they pushed me down again and continued to kick me. I was trying to hold on to my cameras and my pouch...they eventually broke everything off of me," she said. Israeli guards ‘crushed’ Palestinian prisoner’s testicle with rubber bullet Read More » In a statement, Post executive editor Matt Murray called for a “thorough investigation” into the attack, emphasising that Levine was “wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist”. Isreali journalist and activist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, who filmed the assault, told the Post that Israeli soldiers arrived shortly before the attack, firing tear gas at Palestinians and doing “absolutely nothing about the settlers”. Oren Ziv, an Israeli journalist who also witnessed the attack, said one Palestinian was wounded by gunfire, while Reuters reported that at least one of the settlers carried a firearm. Jasper Nathaniel, another American journalist who was at the scene, reported "machine gunfire" with at "least one Palestinian shot". "If she didn’t have a helmet - and if she was Palestinian - she could be dead," Nathaniel said in a post on X. Wafa news agency reported that Israeli settlers assaulted a 70-year-old Palestinian man and smashed several Palestinian-owned vehicles during an attack on olive pickers near the town of Birzeit, north of Ramallah. Local sources said the elderly man was left with fractures and other injuries following the assault. Occupation News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

Dozens of Israeli settlers beat and robbed veteran Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine Friday during an attack on an olive tree grove in the West Bank.The Israelis, masked and dressed all in black, beat the Palestinian villagers harvesting olives while chasing out a group of journalists there to document the work. The settlers descended from a nearby hilltop settlement, hurling rocks at the gathering before setting the grove aflame. Levine was caught in the mix. She was in a vest that read “PRESS” on the front and the back, but the attacking Israelis did not care to differentiate her. Instead, they knocked Levine to the ground, kicked and beat her, and then stole her cameras and phone, reported the Post. The settlers also threw tear gas into the crowd, according to video footage captured by independent journalist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy. Israel’s military, the Israel Defense Forces, were nearby in vehicles but did not intervene.Levine told the Post that she was overtaken by the settlers. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” she told reporters.Khrzhanovskiy said that settlers beat Levine with sticks while the villagers retreated. Levine was taken to a nearby hospital after the incident.“This morning, a Washington Post photographer, Heidi Levine, was attacked by Israeli settlers while reporting in the West Bank. She was wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist,” the executive editor of the paper, Matt Murray, wrote in a statement Friday morning. “While we are relieved that Heidi has received medical care and is safe, we are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities.”Israel has attacked dozens of journalists throughout its assault on Palestine, violating international law in the process. The attack on Levine came less than two weeks after settlers assaulted AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh. Israel has also killed at least 247 media workers since the conflict began three years ago, according to a September report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least 192 of those individuals were Palestinian journalists working in Gaza.

The assault was one of several attacks on Friday as Palestinians gathered to harvest olives across the West Bank.

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives and severely beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine.

Beirut, October 16, 2026 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Friday Israeli settler attack on American journalist Heidi Levine, which wounded her while she was covering the olive harvest in Abu Fallah, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Speaking to CPJ from her hospital bed, Levine, who is a freelancer...

Among the injured was Heidi Levine, a veteran American photojournalist.

Settler attacks injures several in West Bank including Washington Post journalist An ongoing Israeli settler attack in the occupied West Bank has left several people injured, including a Washington Post journalist. The attack has targeted a number of villages near the city of Ramallah, including Burqa, Abu Falah and Kafr Ni’ma. Among those injured was Heidi Levine, a 63-year-old photojournalist working with The Washington Post, who was attacked by settlers in Abu Falah.