Settlers beat Palestinians, US journalist in West Bank attacks: ‘They kept kicking me and kicking me’

A number of people were injured Friday, including both Palestinians and an American journalist from the Washington Post, as settlers attacked groups harvesting olives at a number of locations in the West Bank.

Some 80 settlers, many of them masked and some of them carrying gas canisters, descended from a hill to the terraced olive grove where villagers from Abu Falah had gathered to pick ripe fruit, witnesses said.

Some of them used slings to launch rocks toward Palestinian villagers, who descended toward the bottom of the hill before they began to throw rocks back at the settlers, witnesses said.

Palestinian media outlets reported that the Palestinian Red Crescent treated a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man who sustained injuries from beatings by settlers.

The injured woman was Heidi Levine, a photojournalist who works for The Washington Post and has reported on conflicts around the world.

In footage, the photojournalist is seen at one point lying on the ground as masked individuals beat her with sticks before fleeing the scene.

Severe settler + soldier attack on olive harvesters in Abu Falah. American WaPo journalist Heidi Levine badly wounded. Machine gunfire—at least one Palestinian shot. Tear gas. Soldiers assaulting journalists. pic.twitter.com/He61cNYk0c

— jasper nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 16, 2026

Other journalists and Palestinians then approach her, and she can be heard saying in English, “I’m not okay. They took all my stuff.”

Speaking from a hospital bed, Levine, who is in stable condition, said: “I was attacked, pushed to the ground. 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.”

Levine said the attack ended when her Palestinian colleagues intervened, after which medics rushed her in an ambulance to a clinic in Abu Falah and then to a hospital in Ramallah.

Witnesses said that partway through the attack, at least two Israeli military jeeps drove through the area, but the attack continued even after the military’s arrival, with soldiers firing tear gas in the direction of the Palestinians.

Gunshots can also be heard in footage from the incident, reportedly fired by settlers.

“The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes,” said farmer Moutaz Abdelhadi.

مستوطنون يطلقون الرصاص الحي خلال اعتدائهم على قاطفي الزيتون في قرية أبو فلاح بالضفة الغربية #الأخبار pic.twitter.com/Ho76Uvh1Sz

— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) October 16, 2026

In the wake of the clash, a settler council said “hundreds of terrorists and anarchists” hurled stones and shot fireworks directly toward Israelis. The Binyamin Regional Council alleged that the incident was a “planned provocation” in which journalists were behind the Israelis and filmed their reaction.

There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police or The Washington Post.

In the Birzeit area near Ramallah, a 70-year-old Palestinian was injured in a settler attack, apparently also during the olive harvest, Palestinian media reported.

Washington Post correspondent Heidi Levine was injured this morning in an attack by Israeli settler militias while covering the olive harvest in the village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/EPkr1hxFm7

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 16, 2026

Separately, Palestinian media outlets reported that settlers attacked olive pickers near the village of Turmus Ayya, also in the Ramallah area, and set trees on fire.

Footage from the incident showed settlers setting fire to a car — the official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA reported that settlers set fire to three vehicles in total.

The Palestinian Civil Defense — a rescue and emergency response organization operating under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — said settlers attacked one of its members as he attempted to extinguish a car, and that one of the destroyed vehicles belonged to the organization.

مركبة تأكلها النيران بعد هجوم مليشيات المستوطنين على المزارعين في ترمسعيا شمال رام الله pic.twitter.com/s0oX7u22Cd

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 16, 2026

Additionally, footage was also published online showing settlers near the village of Burqa, in the Ramallah area, apparently attempting to approach Palestinians among the olive trees.

???? المستوطنون يهاجمون المزارعين في أراضي بلدة برقا شرق رام الله. pic.twitter.com/cF5w0kBBFy

— شبكة يافا الإخبارية (@yaffa_ps) October 16, 2026

The incidents came amid heightened tensions across the West Bank during the annual olive harvest, a period that has frequently seen clashes and attacks around Palestinian farmland.

Israel has faced growing international criticism over a surge in settler violence, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed as the work of a small number of delinquents, not from the West Bank.

Critics accuse the government of condoning and even encouraging the violence, which has led to the displacement of dozens of Palestinian families.

The IDF also faces mounting criticism for troops often standing by while attacks unfold, actively participating or failing to prosecute those responsible.

Israel’s security forces, meanwhile, have increasingly sought to stymie the efforts of civil rights activists from assisting Palestinians with the harvest or providing so-called protective presence to them from settler attacks.