Israeli settlers beat AFP photographer as soldiers watch in West Bank

Jaafar Ashtiyeh was doing what he had done for decades—documenting the world as it happened in front of his camera. On this day in early October, the 58-year-old Palestinian photographer for Agence France-Presse was near the northern West Bank village of Aqraba, watching as local farmers moved through their olive groves during harvest season. His colleague John Wessels was with him. They noticed an Israeli soldier detaining someone as Palestinians picked olives, and they moved closer to record it.

What followed unfolded with brutal speed. A quad bike suddenly raced toward them on the hilltop, and the man riding it opened fire. A Palestinian fell to the ground with a gunshot wound to his foot and was later hospitalized. Then at least six more armed settlers rushed toward the two photographers, guns raised. As Ashtiyeh tried to reach a vehicle clearly marked "Press," two men jumped on him and beat him repeatedly with the butts of their rifles, striking his head and torso. They also took his camera equipment. Wessels watched from nearby, hearing Ashtiyeh's screams. He too was threatened at gunpoint but not physically attacked.

About 500 meters away, roughly a dozen armed Israeli soldiers were present during the assault. They did not intervene. Wessels was clear about this distance and the soldiers' inaction. Ashtiyeh was conscious when he reached a hospital in Nablus, where X-rays ruled out broken bones, though he remained hospitalized for observation. His son, Zain Jaafar, confirmed the extent of his injuries and his condition.

The timing was not incidental. This harvest season has been marked by particularly intense violence as Israeli elections approached at month's end. Every year, settlers attack Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest—a critical economic lifeline for Palestinians—and rarely face legal consequences. But this year the pattern had intensified. The man who fired first was wearing a long white shirt over military fatigue trousers and boots, the kind commonly worn by soldiers, according to Wessels.

AFP's global news director, Phil Chetwynd, issued a statement condemning the attack and demanding a full investigation. "It is unacceptable that journalists can be beaten and robbed by armed settlers in front of Israeli security forces who made no attempt to intervene," he said. The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called the assault "a blatant attempt to intimidate the press and obstruct accurate reporting from the West Bank." Both organizations demanded that Israeli authorities explain why soldiers present at the scene did nothing.

The broader context is stark. About 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among roughly 3 million Palestinians. The settlements themselves are illegal under international law. In recent months, violence has flared with near-daily incidents—attacks, thefts, vandalism by settlers against Palestinians. Extremist settlers have been seizing olive groves that Palestinians own and regard as cultural symbols. There have also been attacks in the other direction, including a Palestinian shooting that killed an Israeli settler the previous month.

Media rights organizations have documented a troubling trend: settlers increasingly targeting journalists, and Israeli authorities imposing growing obstacles to coverage. According to Reporters Without Borders, Israeli authorities detained 19 journalists in the West Bank over the three years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. One of those detained was an AFP contributor. The UN Human Rights Office reported that Israel was the world's leading killer of journalists in 2025, having killed at least 225 journalists in Lebanon and Gaza. Against this backdrop, the assault on Ashtiyeh—a veteran photographer simply trying to document events—reads as part of a pattern rather than an isolated incident.