Israeli settlers brutally attacked Palestinian olive pickers and a photojournalist working for The Washington Post in the occupied West Bank on Friday, beating villagers and setting olive groves ablaze.
The attack was among several targeting Palestinians trying to gather their olive harvest, with further assaults and arson reported in nearby communities as well.
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These incidents are just the latest in weeks of intensifying pogroms on local communities in the West Bank by Israelis from illegal settlements who are largely protected – or at least unrestricted – by Israeli forces.
Veteran journalist Heidi Levine, ۶۴, was taken to hospital after the assault on Friday in Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. A Palestinian man was also shot in the thigh by Israeli soldiers, according to a witness who spoke to Al Jazeera and the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Here is what we know.
What happened during the attack?
Dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives, throwing stones, using slingshots and setting trees on fire.
Levine, an American freelance photojournalist who works for The Washington Post, fell to the ground during the attack before she was set upon, witnesses said. “We looked and saw that there was a journalist … on the ground with people surrounding her, beating her, clubbing her, robbing her, pulling her up, beating her again and kicking her,” Jasper Nathaniel, an independent journalist who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera.
Levine later told reporters that her attackers “just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably ۵۰ times”.
Levine was wearing a protective vest marked “PRESS” on the front and back. Her cameras and phone were taken from her during the assault, the Washington Post reported.
Nathaniel said he and others managed to reach her when the settlers briefly backed away, but she struggled to stand. “She was in very, very bad shape. She couldn’t really get up off the ground,” he said.
As they helped her towards paramedics, settlers charged again, throwing more stones, he added. Levine was eventually taken to hospital in Ramallah.
Nathaniel said Israeli soldiers arrived after the settler assault and opened fire and used tear gas against Palestinians, shooting a man in the leg. “They do nothing to stop the settlers, and they speed into town and start firing their guns and tear-gassing, and they shoot a Palestinian man in the leg,” he said.
“They’re pointing their guns at the paramedics who are helping him, shoving journalists, including myself,” Nathaniel said, adding that the man was eventually taken away in an ambulance.
“We are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thor
ough investigation and follow-through from authorities,” Matt Murray, executive editor of The Washington Post, said in a statement.
Wafa also reported that Israeli forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at Palestinians during the attack. After the soldiers left, Palestinians returned to harvesting their olives, Nathaniel added.
Where else have olive pickers been attacked?
There was violence in other parts of the occupied West Bank on Friday, as well. In Burqa, east of Ramallah, four Palestinians were reported to have been injured in a settler attack on olive pickers. In nearby Turmus Aya, settlers assaulted farmers and burned vehicles and olive trees. A civil defence volunteer was also injured, according to Wafa.
The attacks follow the killing of Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari, ۴۴, during an assault on Palestinians gathering olives near Burqa, northwest of Nablus, on October ۷. Witnesses reported that settlers and Israeli soldiers attacked the harvesters.
Journalists documenting the violence have also been targeted. On October ۶, armed settlers beat Palestinian AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh, ۵۸, with rifle butts near Aqraba, south of Nablus. He was taken to hospital with injuries to his head and torso, according to witnesses, relatives and colleagues.
How widespread are attacks?
The Israeli settler pogroms have been going on for many weeks, and have stepped up as the seasonal Palestinian olive harvest gets under way.
The Israeli rights group Yesh Din has recorded at least ۱۷۰ pogroms since September ۲۷, around the start of the annual olive harvest, Reuters reported.
The violence threatens Palestinian livelihoods and access to their land. Farmers endure assaults, the destruction of trees and the theft of crops, while settlers have also begun stealing olives from Palestinian-owned groves themselves.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that the intimidation extends beyond agricultural land to Palestinian homes and vehicles, creating pressure on communities to leave.
“People there are still living under threat of attack, not just on their agricultural lands, but also on their properties,” he said.
“Vehicles and houses have been repeatedly hit by settler attacks, which have been used by the Israeli military, apparently, to create a deterrent environment with Palestinians expected to leave these areas so they can later turn them into Israeli settlements.”
