About 80 masked Israeli settlers wielding clubs stormed and attacked Palestinians picking olives in the village of Abu Falah in the occupied West Bank. The incident is the latest in a wave of settler violence targeting the harvest — a vital economic lifeline for Palestinians in the territory.
According to witnesses, some Palestinians fought back with slingshots and stones when they came under attack. Israeli military vehicles then rushed into the area, but the assault continued; Israeli soldiers fired tear gas toward the Palestinians.
Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who was at the scene, told Al Jazeera that more settlers armed with machine guns later arrived. Reuters quoted a photographer as saying that live gunfire could be heard in the area and that at least one armed settler opened fire.
Nathaniel described violence in the West Bank as currently at an "all-time high or near all-time high." When the settlers began shooting, people fled, and Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine fell to the ground.
"We saw a journalist… lying on the ground, being beaten by multiple people, hit with sticks, robbed, pulled up and beaten again and kicked," Nathaniel recounted. Levine later said that without her helmet and flak jacket, she "probably wouldn't be here."
The attack is part of an increasingly frequent pattern of settler violence, amid the Israeli government's push to expand illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
Last month, Amnesty International said Israel had signed at least 15 land seizure orders covering about 200 dunams (roughly 20 hectares) of Palestinian land in Jenin, in the northern West Bank. The organization said Israel appeared intent on connecting two planned settlements in the area.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), an independent conflict monitoring group, recently said settler violence in the West Bank has hit record levels.
Rising violence and Israel's settlement expansion policy have sparked international concern. Israel's allies, including Britain and France, have announced measures targeting the purchase of goods from illegal settlements. The move marks a clear shift in the stance of Western countries, which had previously limited themselves to verbal criticism of Israel's actions.
