Aqraba (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Armed Israeli settlers on Tuesday beat an AFP photographer, leaving him requiring hospital treatment, as he covered ongoing violence by settlers against West Bank olive farmers.

Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a veteran photographer for the international news agency in the Palestinian territory, had tried to rush into a car for safety but two men tackled him down and clobbered him with their rifle butts, according to witnesses, his family and fellow journalists.

Ashtiyeh and another AFP photographer, John Wessels, were standing on a hill near the northern village of Aqraba watching the olive harvest from around 500 metres away when they saw an Israeli soldier detain a Palestinian.

As Ashtiyeh took pictures, a man suddenly opened live fire as he raced in a quad bike up a hill towards the journalists.

One Palestinian dropped to the ground. He was also hospitalised, with a gunshot to the foot, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

At least six other people then ran towards the AFP journalists firing guns, with two of them beating Ashtiyeh as he tried to enter the car, which was clearly marked “Press”.

“I could hear his screams,” said Wessels, who was also threatened at gunpoint.

Ashtiyeh, who is Palestinian, was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Nablus. He underwent X-rays which did not detect broken bones but he will remain in hospital for round-the-clock observation, said his son, Zain Jaafar.

The assailants stole Ashtiyeh’s camera equipment, Wessels said.

The violence took place despite the presence of at least a dozen fully equipped Israeli soldiers around 500 metres away, according to Wessels.

The man who first fired the gun was wearing a long white shirt as well as military fatigue trousers and boots, which are commonly worn by soldiers, Wessels said.

AFP has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

- ‘Deeply alarmed’ -

“We strongly condemn yet another serious attack on journalists trying to report on events in the West Bank and demand 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,” said Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director.

The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was “deeply alarmed”.

“Israeli authorities must investigate why soldiers present in the area did not intervene in this attack against clearly identified journalists,” it said.

“This attack is a blatant attempt to intimidate the press and obstruct accurate reporting from the West Bank. International media have a responsibility to tell all sides of the story and will not be deterred by physical assaults or threats.”

Reporters Without Borders said it condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”.

“Israeli settlers’ attacks against journalists, carried out with complete impunity, are becoming more and more frequent in the West Bank,” said the advocacy group known by its French initials RSF.

Israeli authorities have detained 19 journalists in the West Bank, including one AFP contributor, in the three years since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

Ashtiyeh was attacked almost exactly a year earlier during the olive harvest by settlers who threw stones at him and who then set his car ablaze.

In October, a settler hit another AFP journalist in the chin as he covered religious Jewish peace activists who seek to protect Palestinians from violence.

Violence has flared in recent months in the West Bank with near-daily attacks, thefts or vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

There have also been attacks against Israelis, with a Palestinian shooting dead a settler last month.

Extremist Israeli settlers have been seizing olive groves owned by Palestinians, who see the trees as a cultural symbol.

Some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967, among three million Palestinians. Settlements in occupied territory are illegal under international law.