Israeli settlers attack Palestinians during West Bank olive harvest and beat U.S. photojournalist

ABU FALAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to cars and trees and beating residents and a foreign journalist, in the latest violence to disrupt the territory's annual olive harvest this month.

Local officials and the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported attacks in at least eight villages in the northern West Bank, where most of the olive groves are concentrated and tens of thousands of Palestinian families depend on them for income.

Settler violence against Palestinians has soared this year and spiked further in the weeks leading up to Israel's election on Oct. 27. The far-right government that has emboldened the settlers could soon be voted out of power — or win another term.

Israeli authorities have done little to stop the attacks, according to residents and rights groups, who say the military has aided, protected or stood by as settlers lay siege to Palestinian villages. The violence has drawn accusations of " ethnic cleansing " — including from the British government, which has said Israel is turning a "blind eye" to the campaign underway.

"Soldiers aren't stopping the violence or protecting Palestinians," said Ziv Stahl, executive director of Israeli rights group Yesh Din. "If anything, they're sometimes assisting settlers in the attacks."

The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule since the 1967 Mideast war and today is home to around 3 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last month that more than 1,600 attacks across the territory had been reported between January and August. Yesh Din and other rights groups say authorities rarely arrest or indict the perpetrators.

Israel's military on Friday condemned the violence and acknowledged that a journalist was injured in Abu Falah.

On Friday, settlers attacked the village as residents, accompanied by peace activists, set out early for the harvest.

As the group of masked vigilantes approached, several members beat Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was hospitalized for her injuries.

The perpetrators — armed with bottles and slingshots — "were kicking me for like 10 minutes and I was trying to hold onto my cameras and my bag," Levine said.

Levine said her helmet and protective vest, which was marked "PRESS," likely saved her from more serious injuries.

Heidi Levine, a photojournalist with the Washington Post, speaks to journalists at the hospital after sustaining multiple injuries during an attack by Israeli militant settlers on Palestinians harvesting olives, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Oct. 16, 2026. Photo by Ali Sawafta/Reuters

Both the Washington Post and the Foreign Press Association, which represents international journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called on Israel to bring the attackers to justice.

"This is the latest in a long line of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and other civilians in the occupied West Bank.