Key takeaways:
- The Palestine Red Crescent Society treated three Palestinians injured at Abu Falah; photojournalist Heidi Levine was treated at a hospital in Ramallah.
- CBS News video showed about 20 masked men approaching the grove, while Al Jazeera reported approximately 80 attackers.
- Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din documented 486 violent incidents against Palestinians over 18 days, including 234 related to the olive harvest.
Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives near the West Bank village of Abu Falah, injuring several people and American photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was working for The Washington Post. Videos showed Levine being pushed to the ground and beaten as her camera equipment was taken.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society treated three Palestinians for injuries at Abu Falah, CBS News reported. One had been shot in the thigh, according to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency. Levine was taken to a hospital in Ramallah with a large wound on one leg and a bandaged hand.
“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 and kicking me,” Levine said from her hospital bed, according to CBS News.
The accounts differed on the size of the group involved. CBS News said video it obtained showed about 20 masked men in black or grey clothing descending from the area of an Israeli settlement outpost into an olive grove. Al Jazeera reported that approximately 80 masked settlers armed with clubs charged at the harvesters.
Video shared by the Foreign Press Association showed masked men surrounding Levine, pushing her down and beating her, CBS News reported. As she lay on the ground, the men launched stones at Palestinians with their arms and slingshots; Palestinians threw stones back. Another video obtained by CBS News showed two vehicles on fire and a Palestinian man with a bloodied face being escorted from the area.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli military jeeps entered the area while the attack continued and that soldiers fired tear gas toward Palestinians. Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel told Al Jazeera that more settlers arrived with machine guns. Al Jazeera also cited Reuters as reporting that live gunfire could be heard and that a photographer saw at least one armed settler fire a gun.
Nathaniel said people ran when the settlers began firing and Levine fell. “We saw that there was a journalist … on the ground [with] people beating her, clubbing her, robbing her, pulling her up, beating her again and kicking her,” he told Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident and would issue a statement, CBS News reported.
WAFA reported additional clashes between settlers and Palestinian olive pickers near Burqa and Turmus Ayya in the central West Bank. Four people injured near Burqa were treated by the Palestine Red Crescent, according to WAFA.
Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has risen in recent years, particularly since Israel’s current government took office in late 2022, according to United Nations humanitarian office statistics cited by CBS News. Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din said it documented 486 violent incidents against Palestinians in 181 localities over 18 days, including 234 related to the olive harvest. CBS News also reported that settlers attacked three NBC journalists and a Palestinian woman they were interviewing in August.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the violence and promised a crackdown on what he described as several hundred wayward youths responsible for attacks on Palestinians, CBS News reported.
Be First to Comment