---
title: "Masked settlers beat a Washington Post photographer at the Abu Falah olive harvest"
description: "Heidi Levine wore a vest marked PRESS. Witnesses counted 80 settlers or more; Netanyahu’s office counted 40 “youths”"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-10-16T18:22:35Z
modified: 2026-10-17T15:36:43Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/masked-settlers-beat-a-washington-post-photographer-at-the-a-8084f9
language: en
tags: ["pogrom", "olive-harvest", "journalist", "settlements", "violence", "mideast", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Masked settlers beat a Washington Post photographer at the Abu Falah olive harvest

*Heidi Levine wore a vest marked PRESS. Witnesses counted 80 settlers or more; Netanyahu’s office counted 40 “youths”*

By Jan Sokol · October 16, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/masked-settlers-beat-a-washington-post-photographer-at-the-a-8084f9

## In brief

- Masked settlers attacked Palestinian olive pickers in Abu Falah on 16 October and set groves on fire
- Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten while wearing a press vest and later had surgery
- Witnesses said troops fired tear gas at Palestinians; a Palestinian man was reportedly shot by soldiers
- Netanyahu’s office called the incident disputed and said about 40 Israeli youths were confronted
- Yesh Din has recorded at least 170 to 234 harvest-season attacks since 27 September, depending on the report

Every autumn the olive harvest comes to the West Bank, and every autumn it settles the same question: who may stand on this land, and for how long. On Friday, 16 October, families from Abu Falah, a village in the Ramallah area, had just started picking when the answer came down the hill at them.

Witnesses who spoke to the Associated Press and Reuters, [as MS NOW reported](https://ms.now/news/washington-post-photojournalist-attacked-by-israeli-settlers-in-west-bank), counted 80 or more settlers, dressed in black with their faces covered. They set the groves alight and threw rocks at the pickers. Andrey X, a journalist and activist who filmed the attack, [told Bel Trew of *The Independent*](https://independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-settler-west-bank-washington-post-b3068307.html) that at least 50 came, carrying slingshots and clubs and, later, automatic rifles. Reuters witnesses also reported guns.

Abu Falah was not the only place it happened that day. [Al Jazeera, which called the violence a pogrom](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/16/palestinians-us-journalist-attacked-in-west-bank-pogrom-what-we-know), reported more assaults and arson in nearby communities. Earlier that morning near Turmus Ayya, [according to Reuters](https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-10-16/israeli-settlers-burn-olive-trees-injure-journalist-in-west-bank-attack), settlers attacked farmers at their harvest and burned three cars.

## The vest

Heidi Levine, a veteran photojournalist for *The Washington Post*, was among a group of reporters about 80 yards away. Her vest said PRESS on the front and on the back. The settlers chased the journalists and caught up with them. Levine went down, and the attackers beat her with sticks and kicked her at least 50 times. They took her camera gear, her bag and her phone. At one point she was helped to her feet, she said, and then knocked down again. Andrey X’s footage shows masked men striking her with clubs while she lies motionless.

![A vintage woodcut-style scene shows a camera and scattered olives beneath an olive tree, with long human shadows stretching across a sunlit grove.](https://rews.cc/img/5cbe8a8afa0a31fc623e543b980cbe2aa3f96e4f.webp)

> Luckily I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me.

Jasper Nathaniel, an American journalist, reached her and got her out. He wrote on X that he managed it only because young Palestinians were throwing rocks to cover him “against machine-gun- and tear-gas-wielding settlers and soldiers.” Then he added: “It’s those kids, not the settler terrorists, who the IDF was hunting after the attack.”

He later wrote that her injuries were “significantly worse than initially thought” and that she may have been stabbed. No one else has confirmed the stabbing. *The Times of Israel* reported that she [had surgery on her hand and suffered broken vertebrae](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/journalist-undergoes-surgery-suffers-broken-vertebrae-after-israeli-settler-attack/). There was a second casualty. According to Andrey X, the army then entered Abu Falah, where soldiers reportedly shot a Palestinian man who had to be taken to hospital. Palestinian medics said two people were taken to hospitals in the Ramallah area.

## Counting the men on the hill

Witnesses said the soldiers drove jeeps through the attack and fired tear gas at the Palestinians who had jumped out of the way. Andrey X said the tear gas came first and then men with assault rifles opened fire with live ammunition, and that the army stood by as settlers chased the journalists with rocks. The military gave a shorter account: “the forces acted to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means,” and “IDF soldiers initially fired warning shots into the air and then fired toward a suspect who ran toward them, carrying a sharp object and posed a threat to them.” It said it “strongly condemns the incident” and is investigating.

![An armored vehicle raises clouds of dust on a rocky road through terraced olive groves, with three people ahead and armed figures silhouetted along the ridge.](https://rews.cc/img/4be24204cbc86aa4413846de3c9d9d199e03d286.webp)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “unequivocally condemns violence against anyone. But serious questions remain.” It went on: “Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths.” It said footage showed masked people on both sides throwing objects, and that other footage “appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual.” The prime minister added that “disputed incidents” would not be allowed “to demonise the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents” of the West Bank.

Set the two counts side by side and you see how a government talks about its own frontier. The witnesses’ 80 masked men become 40 youths. The olive pickers become 200 Arabs and leftists. The man who beat the photographer becomes the man who helped her up.

*The Post*’s executive editor, Matt Murray, said the paper was “outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job” and urged “a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities.” Israeli police [have opened an investigation](https://abcnews.com/International/police-open-investigation-attack-washington-post-journalist-west/story?id=137320053), ABC News reported. Elisa Lees Muñoz, president of the International Women’s Media Foundation, warned that journalists covering conflict “are increasingly viewed as targets themselves.” A week earlier, settlers had attacked an AFP photographer in the West Bank.

![A woodcut-style illustration shows a soldier from behind wearing a green helmet and vest marked with a red bullseye, beside an olive branch.](https://rews.cc/img/320083eb7333a333919909228555c166b7a1efea.webp)

## The season

Abu Falah was one day in a long season. *The Independent* cites the Israeli monitoring group Yesh Din as counting at least 234 attacks tied directly to the harvest since 27 September, with soldiers present at more than a quarter of them. Reuters, citing the same group, gives a figure of at least 170 settler attacks since that date. Neither number suggests the attackers expect to be stopped, a pattern rews has followed [on the sheep farms that now hold large parts of the land](https://rews.cc/a/settlers-use-sheep-to-claim-west-bank-land-as-attacks-hit-a--366404) and [in homes burned while families were still moving back in](https://rews.cc/a/israeli-settlers-burn-palestinian-home-hours-after-family-re-7c0195).

Israel captured the West Bank in 1967. The International Court of Justice has ruled the occupation illegal. More than 500,000 settlers now live there, surrounding 3 million Palestinians under military rule. The United Nations says Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,140 Palestinians in the past three years. Netanyahu’s government, which has settlers among its ministers, has overseen a fast expansion of settlements and outposts.

Allies have started to say so out loud. In September Britain announced plans to ban trade in goods produced in the settlements, and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists.” This week Jordan, in a briefing note shared with *The Independent*, warned that Israel was pushing the West Bank “toward an explosion.” The note said: “The far-right government in Israel is purposefully escalating the situation in the West Bank to enforce new geographic and demographic realities.”

The Israeli military rejects this. It says it is thwarting thousands of “terror attacks.”

## Sources

- [Palestinians and US journalist attacked in West Bank pogrom: What we know](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/16/palestinians-us-journalist-attacked-in-west-bank-pogrom-what-we-know) — aljazeera.com
- [American photojournalist attacked by Israeli settlers in West Bank](https://ms.now/news/washington-post-photojournalist-attacked-by-israeli-settlers-in-west-bank) — ms.now
- [Masked settlers target Washington Post journalist in latest attack on occupied West Bank](https://independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-settler-west-bank-washington-post-b3068307.html) — independent.co.uk