An investigation has challenged official Israeli accounts of an attack by settlers on Palestinian olive harvesters and an American photojournalist in Khirbet Abu Falah, a village northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The assault took place on Friday, October 16.
The probe was carried out by a data journalism unit, which relied on open-source verification and the analysis of visual and geographic evidence. According to its findings, verified footage and mapped coordinates point to a coordinated assault by masked settlers, with Israeli military vehicles passing the area shortly before the incident without stepping in.
Official Israeli accounts diverge from the evidence
Israeli officials have described the events differently. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has questioned whether settlers were responsible at all, while the army has said its troops were dealing with a clash between Palestinians and settlers at the time.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “the facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation.” It cited reports of “some 200 Arabs and far-left activists” confronting about 40 Israeli youths.
The investigation countered that footage and testimony show settlers gathering, moving down into the fields and burning trees before any local youths responded. The assault on Levine is also captured on video.
The army acknowledged that a foreign journalist had been hurt. It said its forces were sent in “following a report of a violent confrontation” and used “riot dispersal means” to break it up, firing warning shots before shooting at a suspect who ran toward soldiers carrying a sharp object. It made no reference to the settlers or to their gunfire.
The army’s international spokesperson, Ariella Mazor, told The Washington Post that soldiers in the area were trying to disperse a large and violent crowd and had not seen the attack on Levine. The investigation’s material, however, suggests military vehicles drove past the settlers without intervening, and that Israeli forces later aimed tear gas at Palestinians after the attack.
Mapping the attack site and nearby outposts
Geospatial analysis places the assault at coordinates 32°01’13.5″N 35°18’40.7″E. That spot lies roughly 455 metres southwest of an outpost on a hill near the Misholash settlement, and only 120 metres north of the land where Palestinians were picking olives.
The unit also identified storage rooms that Palestinians traditionally use for fertiliser and farm tools, and where farmers sometimes sleep. These rooms sit 430 and 500 metres northeast of the attack site, close to the outpost. A local journalist, who spoke anonymously because of security concerns, said Palestinian owners can no longer access them, and settlers now stay and meet there.
That journalist explained that the outpost is in Area B under the Oslo Accords, where the Palestinian Authority handles civil affairs while Israel keeps security control. Only a few settlers normally live there, mainly to establish a presence, but during an incident 50 to 100 settlers from other outposts assemble there before moving into the fields. Tents belonging to settlers on the neighbouring mountain, which overlooks the village, act as further meeting points for attacks on anyone picking olives.
Timeline shows a gradual escalation before the attack
Tracking the footage in order, the investigation describes a steady build-up. Movement began around 8am, when a 4×4 carrying settlers drove toward the site, followed by six motorcycles heading for the area facing the harvesters. A video posted shortly after 9am shows about 30 settlers gathered near the farmers.
Tharwat Shaqra, a correspondent for the network who was at the scene, said Israeli military vehicles passed through the area and that settlers then advanced on the journalists and farmers, “as if it were a green light.” Oren Ziv, an independent Israeli journalist, noted that military jeeps made no effort to stop the masked men.
The settlers then set fire to olive trees and moved toward the harvesters, and village youths responded by throwing stones. Footage shows the assault on Levine after she was knocked to the ground. Her colleagues could only reach her once young Palestinians pushed the settlers back with stones.
American journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who helped pull her away, wrote on X that he was able to reach Levine only because Palestinian youths gave cover with stones against settlers and soldiers armed with machine guns and tear gas. He added that the army chased the young Palestinians after the attack, not the settlers.
During the same period, a video recorded four gunshots followed by two more. Shaqra confirmed that the shots came from the settlers. Later footage shows Israeli forces arriving with their vehicles parked in the settlers’ area. Soldiers then shot local council member Abdel Jaber Obeid and stopped an ambulance before he could be taken to hospital, while the army kept firing tear gas at the olive harvesters.
Condemnation from the US ambassador to Israel
The attack drew wide condemnation. United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee demanded that “those who attacked unarmed reporter should spend YRS in prison.” He also described attacking a female photographer as a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.”
