Israeli settlers just beat up an American photojournalist covering the olive harvest
3 hours ago · 16 October 2026Share
Israeli and Palestinian olive harvesters in the village of Qafin, northern West Bank, Palestine. File photo. Orrling · CC BY-SA 3.0
Israeli settlers just beat up a Washington Post photojournalist.
And she says the only reason she's alive is her flak jacket and helmet.
Here's what happened. A few hours ago, Palestinian families were out picking olives near Abu Falah, a village north of Ramallah.
Then around 80 Israeli settlers came down off a hill above the grove. Many of them masked. Some carrying gas canisters.
Heidi Levine was there, working. She's covered the West Bank for the Washington Post for years.
They knocked her to the ground. She says they kicked her about 50 times. Every time she tried to get up, they pushed her back down.
So think about that. A photojournalist saying her own body armour is the reason she's alive, not anyone who stepped in.
She had a flak jacket on. And a helmet. She says that's what saved her.
There's video filmed right after the attack. Levine is distressed. Her camera gear and her bag are gone.
She says quote "I'm not okay. They took all my stuff."
Her Palestinian colleagues are the ones who pulled the settlers off her. Medics got her into an ambulance, first to a clinic in Abu Falah, then to a hospital in Ramallah.
She's in stable condition. Palestinian media say she has fractures. Israeli sources haven't confirmed that. What we can see on camera is a bandaged hand and a large wound on her leg.
While this was happening, settlers were also burning olive trees and throwing rocks. Some used slings. A Reuters photographer saw one armed settler actually fire a gun. Palestinians threw stones back.
And here's the part that matters. Israeli military jeeps showed up while the attack was still going on.
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A family of Palestinian farmers harvesting olives using traditional methods in the Jenin area, November 2015. File photo. TrickyH · CC BY-SA 3.0
And it kept going anyway.
Soldiers did fire tear gas. But it landed near Palestinians who had already backed away from the jeeps. Not near the settlers who were still beating Levine.
So that's the Israeli military arriving at an attack on an American journalist, and the attack just continuing.
The military says troops and police were sent in after reports of a violent confrontation, and that they worked to disperse it using riot-control measures. It also says, at a nearby spot, its troops fired warning shots and then live shots at a man who ran at them holding a sharp object. Israel Police say they've opened an investigation and are treating it seriously because journalists were involved. So far, no settler has been named or arrested.
The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council represents the settler communities nearby. Its version is completely different. It says the Palestinian Authority brought in hundreds of what it calls anarchists and terrorists to stage the confrontation. It says nothing about Levine's injuries.
And Abu Falah wasn't the only attack today.
Near Turmus Ayya, settlers set fire to at least three Palestinian-owned cars and more olive trees. A Palestinian Civil Defence worker was attacked while trying to put one of the fires out. Near Birzeit, a 70-year-old Palestinian man was hurt in a separate attack.
Moutaz Abdelhadi is a 42-year-old farmer who watched the Abu Falah attack happen. He says quote "The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes."
Yesh Din is an Israeli group that tracks settler violence. It has counted at least 170 attacks on Palestinians since 27 September, right around when the olive harvest started. Nobody's confirmed yet whether today's attacks are even part of that count.
This also isn't the first time a journalist has been hurt at this year's harvest. Earlier this month, an AFP photographer was beaten by settlers at the same harvest. Levine was one of the reporters who wrote up that attack for the Washington Post.
Around 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank. More than three million Palestinians live there too. Most of the world says the settlements are illegal. Israel disagrees.
Settler violence has gone up under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which has kept expanding the settlements. Netanyahu has criticised settler violence before. Reuters reports he has done little to actually stop it.
The Washington Post hasn't responded to requests for comment yet. Nobody has said whether any settler will be charged.
Here's what we know for certain tonight. An American photojournalist is lying in a hospital bed in Ramallah. And by her own account, it was the gear she was wearing, not anyone who got there in time, that kept her alive.
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