Palestinian villagers gather for the annual olive harvest — a season that has become one of the most dangerous times of year in the West Bank. (Photo: Pexels)
Heidi Levine went to the West Bank to photograph an olive harvest. She ended up in a hospital bed in Ramallah, telling reporters she thought she was going to die.
The 64-year-old Washington Post photojournalist was beaten and robbed by masked Israeli settlers on Friday morning while covering Palestinian villagers picking olives near the village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah. Video of the attack shows her lying on her side on a dirt path, hands over her face, as at least three settlers surround and kick her.
What the Video Shows
The footage, posted on X by independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, is hard to watch. Settlers swing clubs at Levine and kick her as she stays curled on the ground. They pull her up off the dirt, beat her more, then shove her back down. They take her cameras. They take her phone. Everything.
Asked right after whether she was okay, Levine answered plainly: "No, I'm going to die."
She lived. But the hospital photos tell their own story — a wound dressing on her left leg, a gash on her right knee, and injuries her colleagues say could have been far worse. Speaking from her hospital bed later, she put it in blunt terms: "I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily I had [on] my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me."
The Attack on Abu Falah
Levine wasn't the target — at least not specifically. The target was the harvest itself.
Reuters reporters on the ground described roughly 80 settlers, faces masked, some carrying gas canisters, descending from a hill above a terraced olive grove where villagers from Abu Falah had gathered for the annual picking. They burned shrubs and olive trees. They used slings to launch rocks at the farmers, who threw stones back to defend themselves. A Reuters photographer saw at least one armed settler fire a live gun; at least one Palestinian was shot, and the Palestinian Red Crescent treated several wounded, including a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man.
Then two Israeli military jeeps sped through the area, kicking up dust — and the attack didn't stop. According to Reuters, soldiers fired tear gas toward the Palestinians. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Farmer Moutaz Abdelhadi, 42, watched it unfold. "The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes," he said.
Abu Falah wasn't the only village hit. Palestinian media reported settlers attacking olive pickers near Turmus Ayya as well, setting fire to three vehicles, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA — with more footage showing settlers approaching farmers near the village of Burqa.
An Outraged Newsroom
The Washington Post didn't mince words. Executive editor Matt Murray issued a statement Friday: "This morning, a Washington Post photographer, Heidi Levine, was attacked by Israeli settlers while reporting in the West Bank," he said. "She was wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist. While we are relieved that Heidi has received medical care and is safe, we are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities."
The Post reported that "dozens of masked settlers" set fire to shrubs and threw rocks in a coordinated assault, and that Levine — in a vest clearly marked "Press" — "was knocked to the ground, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone."
Then the US government weighed in. The US Embassy in Israel said it was "aware of the reports" and condemned "criminal violence by any party in the West Bank," calling for "investigations, arrests, and convictions of those responsible." The embassy added a line that will be quoted for weeks: "The Trump Administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans."
Why October Is the Most Dangerous Month
The official olive harvest season began just one day earlier, on Thursday — and rights groups have documented for years that October brings a sharp rise in settler violence as Palestinian families head into their groves.
The olive tree isn't just a crop in the West Bank. It's income, heritage, and identity — families harvest the same terraces their grandparents did. Settlers have been posting social media campaigns openly encouraging people to steal Palestinians' olives, and farmers have been going out early for weeks, afraid of what would happen if they waited.
Friday morning was the answer to that fear.
What Happens Next
The demands are stacking up: the Washington Post wants a thorough investigation, the US embassy wants arrests and convictions. Whether either arrives is the question that hangs over every West Bank incident like this one — and recent history gives few reasons for optimism.
For now, one image from Friday keeps circulating — a veteran photojournalist on a dirt path, hands over her face, her flak jacket and helmet the only reason she's alive to describe it. She went to document an olive harvest. What she captured instead was a morning that tells you everything about what harvest season has become.
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