West Bank settlers attack AFP journalists, AFP says

Israeli settlers attacked AFP journalists reporting near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, leaving at least five people injured, the journalists and Palestinian medics said.

A three-person AFP team had travelled to Jannatah to report on Israeli activists who visit Palestinians facing harassment by Israeli settlers, including after settlers recently blocked a road in the area.

After an altercation between settlers and activists, the Israeli military ordered journalists to leave what it called a “closed military zone”. The journalists said two more cars carrying settlers then arrived.

The journalists said settlers, many of them children, threw stones towards journalists and activists. One AFP journalist said he ducked a stone before a child settler hit him in the chin with a stick, causing minor bleeding.

The AFP team later found both of its parked cars damaged, with rear windshields smashed and tyres punctured.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said five people were treated for injuries. AFP journalists said they saw at least one Israeli activist taken away in a Palestinian ambulance.

The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967. More than 500,000 Israelis live there alongside about three million Palestinians. Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers has increased since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip.