Israeli settlers just beat and robbed an AFP photographer and soldiers watched
1 hour ago · 6 October 2026Share
Photographer with Camera and Tripod ShenandoahNPS · Public domain
Israeli settlers just beat up an AFP photographer in the West Bank.
And robbed him too.
While Israeli soldiers stood about 500 metres away. Watching. Doing nothing.
Jaafar Ashtiyeh is 58. He's a veteran photographer for AFP. He was working near the village of Aqraba earlier today.
He's in hospital now. Bruises to his head and his body. His son, Zain Jaafar, says he's conscious, under 24-hour watch, in Nablus.
He wasn't alone. A second AFP photographer, John Wessels, was right there with him. Wessels saw the whole thing. He got threatened at gunpoint too.
So what were they even doing there? Covering settlers attacking Palestinian olive farmers. That's it. That's the job.
Right before it kicked off, they'd spotted an Israeli soldier detaining a man while Palestinians picked olives nearby.
Then a quad bike came flying at them. A man on it opened fire. One Palestinian got shot in the foot. He's in hospital too, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
That wasn't the end of it. At least six more people ran at the journalists. Guns out, firing.
Ashtiyeh tried to get into a car. Two men beat him with their guns. Again and again.
John Wessels says quote "I could hear his screams".
Then they took his camera equipment and left.
Now here's the part that changes everything.
The rest of this story is for members.
Soldiers in olive grove, with a little Palestinian boy in front of them. File photo. ISM Palestine · CC BY-SA 2.0
A dozen fully equipped Israeli soldiers were standing about 500 metres away. The whole time. According to Wessels, they didn't move. Not once.
And there's a strange detail nobody can explain yet. The man who opened fire first was wearing a white shirt. But also military trousers. And the kind of boots soldiers wear. Nobody knows if he actually was a soldier, or a settler dressed like one.
There's more. A separate, Palestinian-sourced report says three other people were badly beaten in Aqraba that same day. And that settlers stopped ambulances getting to the injured.
AFP's global news director is Phil Chetwynd. He says it is unacceptable that journalists can be beaten and robbed by armed settlers in front of security forces who made no attempt to step in.
So that's AFP itself. Pointing straight at the soldiers who stood there and watched.
AFP asked Israel's military for comment. Nothing back yet.
And this isn't happening in a vacuum.
The West Bank has had near-daily attacks, thefts and vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians for months now. It's also olive harvest season. The exact time tension over land hits its peak every year. Settlers have been seizing Palestinian-owned olive groves. Trees that mean everything to these families.
Last month a Palestinian man shot and killed a settler. Attacks have been going both ways.
About 500,000 Israeli settlers live across the West Bank. Israel has occupied it since 1967. Three million Palestinians live there too. Settlements on occupied land are considered illegal under international law.
Journalists keep getting caught in this. Reporters Without Borders says Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank in the three years since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. One of them was an AFP contributor.
So what don't we know? Who exactly carried out today's attack. Whether the man in military-style clothing was really a soldier. Whether anyone will be arrested. Israel's military hasn't said a word.
Here's what we do know. An international photographer got beaten and robbed in broad daylight. A dozen armed soldiers were close enough to see every second of it. And nobody moved.
Nothing here was paid for by an advertiser. Members are the entire business model. Bronze is where it starts, and it opens the last seven days in full.
