Violence against Palestinians and the press has been on going problem in Israel in general for years, but the level of such incidents in the occupied West Bank has reached a fevered pitch in recent months, with Israeli settlers attacking people with virtual impunity.
The latest attack saw Washington Post veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine among the casualties. She and others were attacked by settlers clad in black near the town of Birzeit. The 63-year-old Levine was wearing a press vest and helmet, and was knocked to the ground and beaten badly enough to put her in the hospital. Others involved in the olive harvest were similarly beaten and at least one was shot.
Israeli troops arrived at the scene during the attack, but reportedly did effectively nothing to stop the settlers, firing tear gas at the Palestinians and then standing by the settlers as the beatings continued.
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, October 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Sawafta
The attack consisted of dozens of settlers, masked and clad in black. Some estimates put the number as high as 80. Levine, herself Jewish by birth, described the attackers as “Jewish terrorists,” and said she was positive none of the settlers would be prosecuted for what they did.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Atid has documented at least 170 incidents of settler violence since late September, when the olive harvests began. Most of the attacks center around preventing Palestinians from harvesting their groves, and some settlers have been stealing the olive harvest themselves.
The attacks on journalists covering the incidents is far from unprecedented. Just 10 days ago, AFP photojournalist Jaafer Ashtiyeh was severely beaten by settlers in full view of Israeli soldiers, who did nothing about it. There has been no report that any of the settlers were ever held to account for attacking and hospitalizing Ashtiyeh.
This wasn’t even the only attack on an olive harvest today, as settlers also attacked harvesters in Turmus Ayya, and set fire to the trees belonging to the Palestinians.
Israel’s Foreign Press Association said they warned the Israeli government repeatedly over threats of violence to journalists on the ground, without effect. The Israeli military said they were investigating the incident.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid sought to make the matter a political issue, saying the failure of security forces to stop the terror attacks wasn’t a failure of government policy but rather was itself the policy.
There’s not a lot of hope for such investigations, however. Settlers commit violence almost daily, and most of the incidents are never investigated at all. Even when they are, only about 2% ever lead to any convictions for wrongdoing, and given the Israeli soldiers were present and complicit in this attack, the odds of anything being done about this attack seem vanishingly low.
Israeli settler umbrella group the Binyamin Regional Council issued a statement of its own, blaming the Palestinian Authority for the entire incident. They claimed the settlers were provoked by “provocateurs” operating under the guise of an olive harvest and that the PA had been organizing “hundreds of anarchists” to do the same elsewhere.
Born in Boston, the 63-year-old Levine worked as a photojournalist for both the Associated Press and Washington Post, winning multiple awards in 2015 for her coverage of the situation in the Gaza Strip. Though she has covered other international crises, her career has been defined by coverage of the situation in Israel and Palestine, which she has called “very personal.”
