Settlers Beat AFP Photographer With Rifle Butts Near Aqraba as Israeli Soldiers Stand 500 Meters Away

Jaafar Ashtiyeh was trying to get into a car marked "Press" when two men jumped on him and beat him with the butts of their rifles.

The 58-year-old veteran Agence France-Presse photographer was covering settler violence against Palestinian olive farmers near the village of Aqraba in the northern West Bank on Monday. He and fellow AFP photographer John Wessels had been watching an Israeli soldier detain a Palestinian man while locals picked olives when a quad bike raced toward them and a man on it opened fire, according to Wessels. One Palestinian was shot in the foot and hospitalized, the Palestine Red Crescent Society confirmed.

At least six more armed men then rushed the journalists. Wessels said he was threatened at gunpoint while Ashtiyeh was beaten.

"I could hear his screams," Wessels said.

The assailants took Ashtiyeh's camera equipment. He suffered bruises to his head and torso and was hospitalized in Nablus, his son Zain Jaafar said. X-rays found no broken bones, but he remained under observation.

According to Wessels, roughly a dozen armed Israeli soldiers were positioned about 500 meters away during the attack and did not intervene. One of the men who opened fire wore a long white shirt with military fatigue trousers and boots, clothing Wessels described as commonly worn by soldiers, though he stopped short of identifying the shooter as a soldier.

AFP's global news director, Phil Chetwynd, condemned the assault and called for a full investigation, saying it was unacceptable that journalists could 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" and demanded Israeli authorities explain why the soldiers present did not act.

The attack came during an especially violent olive harvest season, which observers have linked to tension ahead of Israeli elections at the end of the month. Settlers have increasingly seized Palestinian-owned groves, and attacks on farmers during the harvest recur annually with few arrests or prosecutions.

Press-rights groups say journalists have become more frequent settler targets even as official obstacles to coverage grow. Reporters Without Borders says Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, including one AFP contributor. The UN Human Rights Office has identified Israel as the world's leading killer of journalists in 2025, attributing at least 225 journalist deaths in Gaza and Lebanon to Israeli forces.

AFP has asked the Israeli military for comment on the incident.