US Alarmed as Israeli Settlers Beat Photographer Heidi Levine in West Bank
“The Department of State is aware of these reports. We are greatly concerned when any American is harmed overseas and stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” a State Department spokesman said in an emailed statement to a news agency. “The Department has reached out to the Washington Post to offer consular assistance,” the spokesman added.
The department said the Trump administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. It added that Washington remains in regular dialogue with partners on improving stability and security in the West Bank.
“We condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and support appropriate investigations as well as legal accountability for those responsible,” the spokesman said. The statement did not mention Israeli occupiers.
Levine was “badly beaten” while covering the Palestinian olive harvest in the village of Abu Falah, near Ramallah, according to a foreign press association. She was taken to Ramallah Government Hospital, where she was in stable condition.
Her employer, the newspaper, said she was wearing “visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist” and demanded “a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities.”
Israel Police said they had opened an investigation, while the Israeli army said it would examine “all circumstances” of the incident.
The press association described the assault as “the latest in a long line of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and other civilians in the occupied West Bank.”
Levine was one of two foreign journalists hurt in attacks across the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate. The violence also wounded at least 12 Palestinians, many of them farmers harvesting olives, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Civil Defense and Al-Baydar.
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said this week it had documented at least 136 attacks by Israeli forces and occupiers linked to the olive harvest since the start of October.
The harvest is a vital source of income for thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank, where farmers face mounting attacks and restricted access to their land during the season.
Attacks by Israeli forces and occupiers on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have intensified since the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
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