Israeli settlers attack AFP journalists in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers attacked journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday while they were reporting on tensions between settlers and Palestinians near Bethlehem, injuring at least five people, according to the journalists and medics. A three-person AFP team travelled to the village of Jannatah to report on Israeli activists making solidarity visits to Palestinians facing harassment from settlers. Settlers have recently blocked a road used by local Palestinians. After an altercation broke out between settlers and activists, the Israeli military ordered the journalists to leave an area it declared a “closed military zone”. Shortly afterwards, two additional vehicles carrying settlers arrived, according to AFP. The settlers, many of them children, threw stones towards the journalists and activists. One AFP journalist said he avoided a stone before a child settler struck him on the chin with a stick, causing minor bleeding. The journalists later returned to find both of their parked vehicles 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 being taken away in a Palestinian ambulance. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, alongside around three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the territory since 1967. The incident comes as Israeli authorities under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government continue to advance settlement construction in the West Bank ahead of parliamentary elections on 27 October. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has increased sharply since Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. Reported by AFP