Veteran photojournalist Jaafar Ashtiyeh was beaten by armed Israeli settlers with rifle butts on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank. The assault occurred near Aqraba as he covered violence against olive farmers, with about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers stationed nearby watching without intervening.
The assault unfolded on Tuesday as Agence France-Presse photojournalist Jaafar Ashtiyeh and colleague John Wessels were working near the northern Palestinian village of Aqraba. The journalists were documenting the annual olive harvest amid a worsening wave of settler violence directed at Palestinian farmers trying to gather their crops. The harvest represents an essential economic lifeline and a powerful cultural symbol for Palestinians in the territory.
According to Wessels, the situation escalated rapidly when an Israeli soldier was seen detaining a man while locals picked olives on a nearby hill. A quad bike suddenly approached the journalists at high speed, and a man aboard opened live fire. A Palestinian man was struck in the foot and subsequently hospitalized for his injury, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Assault on Jaafar Ashtiyeh Near Aqraba
At least six additional armed individuals rushed toward the two photojournalists immediately following the initial gunfire. As Ashtiyeh scrambled to reach a vehicle clearly marked with Press
lettering, two men descended upon him and began striking him repeatedly with the butts of their rifles.
Wessels recounted being threatened at gunpoint while the assault on his colleague took place. The attackers also seized Ashtiyeh’s camera equipment before fleeing. The 58-year-old veteran photographer suffered bruises to his head and torso during the beating. He was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Nablus, where initial X-rays revealed no broken bones. He remained admitted under round-the-clock observation, according to his son, Zain Jaafar.
Israeli Soldiers Watch Without Intervening
A central point of contention in the aftermath is the conduct of nearby military personnel. Wessels noted that a group of roughly a dozen fully equipped Israeli soldiers stood approximately 500 meters away during the entire incident and did nothing to stop the violence. Wessels also observed that the man who initially fired the weapon wore a long white shirt paired with military fatigue trousers and boots commonly worn by soldiers.
Phil Chetwynd, global news director for Agence France-Presse, issued a stern condemnation of the episode and demanded accountability from authorities.
We strongly condemn yet another serious attack on journalists trying to report on events in the West Bank and demand a full investigation.
Phil Chetwynd, AFP global news director
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media operating inside Israel and the Palestinian territories, echoed those demands. The organization stated that the assault was a blatant attempt to intimidate the press and obstruct accurate reporting from the West Bank, noting that international outlets will not be deterred by physical attacks or threats.
Wider West Bank Demolitions and Harvest Clashes
The attack on Ashtiyeh coincides with a broader intensification of land seizures, demolitions, and settler raids across the West Bank. In a separate development on Tuesday, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported that Israeli occupation authorities issued a new military order to seize land in the Al-Jabriyat neighborhood of Jenin under the pretext of urgent military purposes. The 60-day order targets plots in Basin 20071, overlapping with previous May orders to create a contiguous area.
Media rights organizations emphasize that Ashtiyeh’s beating is part of an escalating pattern. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders notes that Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank—including an AFP contributor—over the three years since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks. Approximately 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live among 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967, where settlements remain illegal under international law.