Heidi Levine, Netanyahu Heidi Levine, Washington Post photographer West Bank
Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government cast doubt on what happened to Heidi Levine, later said officials were still checking Office of Speaker Mike Johnson

'I'm going to die,' Heidi Levine told people trying to help her. Masked men had just beaten the US photographer as she worked near a West Bank village on Friday 16 October. Witnesses said the men were Israeli settlers. Within hours, video of the attack was online.

Less than five hours later, Benjamin Netanyahu's office said she was 'allegedly assaulted' and called the facts unclear. The Washington Post pushed back. Her daughter, Ashley Milner, said she had a broken rib and four fractured vertebrae. On Monday 19 October, police held 10 suspects over attacks on her and EU envoys.

What Happened in the Olive Groves

Levine was photographing the Palestinian olive harvest near Abu Falah, north of Ramallah. Reuters witnesses said dozens of masked settlers set trees on fire and threw rocks, and that army jeeps came, but the attack went on. A video posted by Jasper Nathaniel shows men pushing her down and beating her. The men took her cameras and her phone. She wore a helmet and a vest marked 'PRESS', the Post said.

Colleagues pulled her clear, she said, and an ambulance took her to Ramallah before she went on to the Rabin Medical Center in central Israel. On Saturday, doctors there operated on her finger, the hospital said. Milner said it was cut to the bone and warned the wound could end her career. Levine has covered wars from Iraq to Ukraine. She says the beating will not stop her from working.

Israel's Account and the Post's Reply

Netanyahu's office gave its account on X, shown below. Citing reports, it said some 200 Arabs and far-left activists had faced off with about 40 young Israelis. The office said masked people on both sides threw objects. It added that other footage seemed to show an unknown person knocking Levine down and then helping her up. The army said it sent forces after a report of a violent clash, and condemned violence against civilians.

Matt Murray, the Post's top editor, replied a few hours later. 'Some facts are neither in dispute nor unclear,' he wrote on X. He added that Levine was clearly marked as press and was clearly beaten. On Saturday, Netanyahu told i24NEWS that such reports are not always right and that officials were still checking. He also called extremist settler violence a scourge that Israel would root out, The Times of Israel reported.

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Arrests and the Wider Toll on Journalists

From her hospital bed, Levine told Israel's Channel 12 that the suggestion an attacker had helped her up was 'such a lie and the biggest insult'. Police have not said which suspects, if any, took part in her beating. Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, spoke to her and called her attackers criminals.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 16 cases this year have hit the press in the West Bank. 'Israel's failure to ensure accountability is emboldening those who attack journalists,' said Sara Qudah, its regional director. Ten days before the Levine attack, settlers beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh, who takes photos for AFP.

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