Newsletters
An Israeli settler armed with a rifle beat an AFP photographer so severely on Tuesday that he required hospital treatment, as the journalist was covering settler violence against Palestinian olive farmers in the occupied West Bank, witnesses, the journalist's family and colleagues said.
Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a veteran photographer for the international news agency, suffered bruises to his head and torso in the attack near the northern Palestinian village of Aqraba.
He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Nablus, where X-rays found no broken bones, though he remained under observation, according to his son, Zain Jaafar.
Ashtiyeh and a second AFP photographer, John Wessels, were near Aqraba when they saw an Israeli soldier detaining a man as local Palestinians picked olives nearby, according to Wessels.
A quadbike then raced toward the journalists from a nearby hill, and a man riding it opened fire, wounding a Palestinian man in the foot, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said. That man was also hospitalized.
At least six more people then rushed toward the journalists, firing weapons, Wessels said.
As Ashtiyeh tried to get into a car clearly marked "Press," two men jumped on him and beat him repeatedly with the butts of their rifles. Wessels said he was also threatened at gunpoint during the assault.
"I could hear his screams," Wessels said.
The assailants took Ashtiyeh's camera equipment before leaving, according to Wessels.
Wessels said the man who first opened fire wore a long white shirt along with military fatigue trousers and boots of the kind commonly worn by soldiers.
The attack occurred even though roughly a dozen fully equipped Israeli soldiers were stationed about 500 meters away and did not intervene, Wessels said. AFP has requested comment from the Israeli military.
AFP's global news director, Phil Chetwynd, condemned the assault and called for a full inquiry.
"We strongly condemn yet another serious attack on journalists trying to report on events in the West Bank and demand a full investigation," he said, adding that it was unacceptable for journalists to be "beaten and robbed by armed settlers in front of Israeli security forces who made no attempt to intervene."
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was "deeply alarmed" by the attack and called on Israeli authorities to examine why soldiers present at the scene failed to act to protect journalists who were clearly identifiable as press.
The association described the assault as an attempt to intimidate reporters and obstruct coverage of events in the West Bank, and said international media would not be deterred by physical assaults or threats.
The assault comes amid a surge of near-daily attacks, thefts and vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months, including the seizure of olive groves that Palestinians regard as a cultural symbol.
Violence has also been directed at Israelis; a Palestinian man shot and killed a settler last month.
Roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank alongside about three million Palestinians. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war, and settlements built there are considered illegal under international law by much of the international community.
Media rights organizations say Israeli settlers have increasingly targeted journalists covering the West Bank, even as authorities have imposed growing restrictions on press access.
Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, says Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank, including one AFP contributor, in the three years since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel from Gaza.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
