Israeli settlers attack olive framers & Washington Post journalist in West Bank

Masked Israeli settlers launched coordinated attacks across the occupied West Bank to disrupt the annual olive harvest, burning cars and trees, assaulting harvesters and journalists, and stealing crops. Palestinian authorities reported incidents in eight villages and at least 20 people injured; rights groups documented hundreds of bags of olives seized and bulldozed groves in places such as Abu Falah, Turmus Ayya and Kufur Malek. In Abu Falah roughly 80 settlers armed with clubs, slingshots and firearms confronted farmers in view of Israeli military vehicles; when some Palestinians resisted, Israeli forces fired teargas. Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten for more than ten minutes, left hospitalized with injuries and had her passport, phone, wallet and equipment stolen, witnesses and her employer said.

The violence forms part of a sustained surge since late September: Yesh Din counted about 170 attacks since the harvest began, Palestinian authorities reported at least four deaths and over 100 injured in the past month, and activists warn of large-scale crop theft. New Israeli military orders increasingly bar Palestinians from accessing some Area C farmland - about 8,800 hectares this year - while granting broader access to Israeli citizens, a shift critics say facilitates settler impunity. Rights groups and activists argue the military often intervenes only when Palestinians defend themselves, and condemn expanding settlements and weak accountability amid rising international criticism.