Netanyahu's office issued a statement questioning the account of an incident involving approximately 50 settlers — an episode that left Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine requiring hospital treatment — while a number of opposition figures called for accountability and applied the label "Jewish terrorists" to those involved.
A statement from Netanyahu's office put the number of participants at approximately 200 Palestinians and activists on one side and around 40 young Israelis on the other, noting that responsibility for how the confrontation began had not been established. That characterisation stood alongside accounts describing masked individuals descending from a hillside toward Palestinian olive groves carrying slings and bats.
Netanyahu's office said the details "remain unclear and are under investigation," adding that it would not permit "controversial incidents to be used to demonize the hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria" — a designation drawn from both official Israeli nomenclature and biblical tradition for the territory internationally recognised as the occupied West Bank.
Heidi Levine, a photographer on assignment for the Washington Post, was physically assaulted by settlers in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, near Ramallah, while she documented the annual olive harvest there. Speaking with a reporter from her hospital bed, she described how the individuals involved had taken her cameras, passport, phone, and wallet. A formal rebuke of the episode was issued by the Foreign Press Association operating in Israel.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, in a formal statement, characterised what he described as settler violence against civilians — including a Washington Post photographer — not as a governance breakdown but as an expression of deliberate policy. He added that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir actively fosters such conduct while Prime Minister Netanyahu has chosen to stay silent, and pledged that his party would bring the situation to an end. Lapid described the situation as an embarrassment for Israel, a stain on Jewish identity, and a setback for the country's standing abroad, with a national election scheduled for the 27th.
Gadi Eisenkot, who was running against Netanyahu in those elections, voiced backing for what he called the army's unambiguous denunciation of the incident, and called on the Israel Police to respond with firm measures against what he characterised as criminal behaviour, adding that the small number of individuals involved bore no resemblance to the broader Israeli public. Eisenkot stated that the conduct of this group undermines the reputation of an entire nation and places both civilian and military personnel at heightened risk.
A journalist identified as Nathaniel, who was present at the scene, told a news outlet that around a hundred farmers had assembled to collect their olive harvest when a group of masked individuals gathered on higher ground nearby, carrying bats. About an hour after the harvest got underway, those individuals began hurling stones via slings at the farmers and the activists accompanying them, who threw some stones back. Soldiers subsequently arrived and deployed tear gas directed at the farmers' side — a development that, in Nathaniel's account, enabled the stone-throwers to advance with soldiers positioned behind them. Nathaniel added that he was himself struck by a stone during the confrontation.
Nathaniel described a white pickup truck pulling up behind the troops, its occupants wearing face coverings and carrying automatic weapons, before shots were fired into the air and the crowd scattered. A leg wound sustained by a Palestinian was verified through a statement given by a Red Crescent paramedic to a news outlet.
Settler-related violence and intimidation in the occupied West Bank — a territory where settlement construction has expanded over recent years — are recorded as a recurring feature of daily life there, with confrontations intensifying around the olive harvest period. At least two Palestinians have lost their lives since October, placing that season among the periods with the highest recorded toll.
