Palestinians and an American journalist attacked during a West Bank pogrom: what we know | News from the occupied West Bank

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 burning olive groves.

This attack was part of a series of attacks targeting Palestinians trying to harvest their olives, and other assaults and arson were also reported in neighboring communities.

These incidents are just the latest in an intensification of pogroms against local West Bank communities by Israelis in illegal settlements that are largely protected – or at least unrestricted – by Israeli forces.

Veteran journalist Heidi Levine, 64, was taken to hospital after Friday’s attack in Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah. A Palestinian was also shot in the thigh by Israeli soldiers, according to a witness interviewed by Al Jazeera and the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Here’s what we know.

What happened during the attack?

Dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives, throwing stones, using slingshots and burning trees.

Levine, a freelance American photojournalist who works for the Washington Post, fell to the ground during the attack before being assaulted, witnesses said. “We looked and saw that there was a journalist… on the ground, surrounded by people who were hitting her, clubbing her, robbing her, picking her up, hitting her again and kicking her,” Jasper Nathaniel, an independent journalist who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera.

Levine later told reporters that his attackers “kept kicking and kicking me, probably 50 times.”

Levine wore a protective vest marked “PRESS” on the front and back. His cameras and phone were confiscated during the attack, the Washington Post reported.

Nathaniel said he and others managed to reach her when the settlers briefly retreated, but she struggled to get up. “She was in very, very bad condition. She couldn’t really get up,” he said.

As they helped him to the paramedics, the settlers charged again, throwing more stones, he added. Levine was eventually taken to Ramallah hospital.

Nathaniel said Israeli soldiers arrived after the settler assault and opened fire and used tear gas against the Palestinians, shooting one man in the leg. “They do nothing to stop the settlers, they rush into the city and start shooting their guns and throwing tear gas, and they shoot a Palestinian in the leg,” he said.

“They point their guns at the paramedics who are helping him, push the journalists, including myself,” Nathaniel said, adding that the man was eventually taken away in an ambulance.

“We are outraged by this unjustified attack on a journalist doing her job and call on authorities for a thorough investigation and follow-up,” Matt Murray, editor-in-chief 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, the Palestinians began harvesting their olives again, Nathaniel added.

Where else have olive pickers been attacked?

Violence also took place in other parts of the occupied West Bank on Friday. In Burqa, east of Ramallah, four Palestinians were reportedly injured in a settler attack on olive pickers. In the nearby town of Turmus Aya, settlers attacked farmers and burned vehicles and olive trees. A civil protection volunteer was also injured, according to Wafa.

The attacks follow the killing of Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari, 44, in an attack on Palestinians picking olives near Burqa, northwest of Nablus, on October 7. Witnesses reported that Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked the pickers.

Journalists who documented the violence were also targeted. On October 6, armed settlers beat Palestinian AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, 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 the attacks?

Israeli settler pogroms have been going on for many weeks and have intensified as the seasonal Palestinian olive harvest begins.

Israeli rights group Yesh Din has recorded at least 170 pogroms since September 27, the start of the annual olive harvest, Reuters reported.

Violence threatens Palestinian livelihoods and access to their land. Farmers are suffering attacks, destruction of trees and theft of crops, while settlers have also started stealing olives from Palestinian plantations themselves.

Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that the intimidation extends beyond farmland to Palestinian homes and vehicles, creating pressure on communities to leave.

“People still live under the threat of attacks, not only on their agricultural lands, but also on their properties,” he said.

“Vehicles and houses were repeatedly hit by settler attacks, which were used by the Israeli army, apparently, to create a deterrent environment, with Palestinians expected to leave these areas so that they could then be transformed into Israeli settlements. »