Armed Israeli settlers beat an AFP photographer and took his camera equipment while he covered violence involving Palestinian olive farmers in the occupied West Bank, according to the news agency.
Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, suffered injuries to his head and torso during the attack near the village of Aqraba on Tuesday. Emergency workers took him to hospital in Nablus.
Ashtiyeh, a Palestinian photographer who has worked for AFP for years, was reporting alongside AFP photographer John Wessels when the incident began.
According to AFP’s account, the journalists had seen an Israeli soldier detaining a man while Palestinians harvested olives.
Wessels said a man then approached the journalists on a quad bike and opened fire. One Palestinian fell to the ground and later received hospital treatment for a gunshot wound to his foot, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
At least six other people approached the journalists while firing weapons, AFP reported.
Ashtiyeh attempted to reach a vehicle marked “Press”, but two men caught him and struck him several times with rifle butts, according to Wessels.
“I could hear his screams,” Wessels said. He said he was also threatened at gunpoint and that the attackers took Ashtiyeh’s photographic equipment.
About a dozen Israeli soldiers were positioned around 500 metres from the attack, Wessels told AFP. The Guardian reported that the assault took place within view of Israeli soldiers who did not intervene.
AFP said it had contacted the Israeli military for comment.
Ashtiyeh remained conscious after the assault. His son, Zain Jaafar, told AFP that X-rays found no broken bones, but doctors kept his father in hospital for observation.
AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd condemned the attack and called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding it.
“It is unacceptable that journalists can be beaten and robbed by armed settlers in front of Israeli security forces who made no attempt to intervene,” Chetwynd said.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, also called for an investigation into the soldiers’ response.
The incident comes during the annual olive harvest, when Palestinian farmers travel to groves across the West Bank. Reports of attacks, property damage and theft involving settlers and Palestinians have increased in recent months. Violence has also targeted Israelis, including the fatal shooting of a settler by a Palestinian last month.
Around 500,000 Israeli settlers live among about three million Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. Israeli settlements in occupied territory violate international law.
Media organisations have also reported pressure on journalists working in the territory. Reporters Without Borders says Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank, including an AFP contributor, during the three years since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
HT