West Bank settlers brutally attack a Washington Post journalist

Photojournalist Heidi Levine is transferred on a stretcher into an ambulance after she was attacked by Israeli settlers while photographing Palestinian farmers harvesting their olives on October 16, 2026. | Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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On Friday, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians living in the West Bank, as well as a Washington Post photographer, who was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Photojournalist Heidi Levine was knocked down, beaten, and robbed of her camera equipment by masked settlers in an attack captured on video by other journalists.

Those other members of the press rescued her from the attackers while Israel Defense Forces soldiers reportedly stood by.

Levine had lacerations and a wound to her hand that split her finger to the bone, according to the Post , which condemned the attack in a statement.

Jasper Nathaniel, an independent journalist who helped Levine escape the attack, said that Levine also had cracked ribs, and may have been stabbed.

Assaults like this one are becoming more common in the West Bank, where settler violence — which is currently targeting the ongoing olive harvest — has worsened.

Last week, another photojournalist for the news wire Agence France-Presse was beaten with rifles by settlers, and Palestinian residents of the West Bank have been shot, beaten, and terrorized while the Israeli settlers targeting them face few consequences.

Why settler violence is growing in the West Bank As my colleague Zack Beauchamp recently explained, under international law, the settler movement in the West Bank is clearly illegal .

Nevertheless, it’s continued to grow, and it has a friend in the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

It’s also becoming increasingly violent.

Two current Israeli officials, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, are settlers themselves, and both have used their offices — as ministers of finance and national security, respectively — to further the settler cause , including by making it easier for settlers to commit unchecked violence against Palestinians.

The United Nations reported in June that settler attacks had reached “the highest sustained levels ever recorded…with [an average of] six daily attacks that have resulted in casualties, property damage or both,” and in many Palestinians being forced from their homes by settlers.