Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine said from a hospital bed that she was kicked about 50 times during a Friday clash near Abu Falah in the West Bank. Levine was reportedly wounded as extremist settlers and Palestinians confronted one another, and footage seen by The Jerusalem Post appears to show her kneeling on a path in a press jacket and helmet while colleagues rushed in to carry her away.
Levine said, "about 50 times," and added, "After about 10 minutes, they tried to make me get up; they pushed me back to the ground and continued kicking me," She also said, "I tried to hold on to my cameras and my side bag, but in the end they just ripped everything from me and kept kicking me."
Heidi Levine and Abu Falah
Police launched an investigation after receiving an IDF report on the West Bank clashes. Palestinian media said Levine was beaten and suffered fractures and cuts near Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, but Israeli sources have not independently verified that account. Levine said she believes her black jacket and helmet helped keep her alive, saying she "probably wouldn't be here at all, because they just kept kicking me again and again."
The injury report landed amid four incidents of nationalist-motivated violence and clashes reported overnight and Friday morning across the West Bank. Those episodes included confrontations in Burin during the olive harvest, additional incidents in Burqa and Turmus Ayya, and attacks that reportedly involved at least four vehicles being set on fire, including one civil defense vehicle.
Mateh Binyamin Regional Council claims
The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council offered a sharply different account, saying the Palestinian Authority "led hundreds of anarchists and terrorists into a direct confrontation with Israelis near Abu Falah, all under the cover of the olive harvest." The council also said, "The event was orchestrated by the PA; its patrol vehicles were present and highly visible at the scene, even though it is in Area B, where Israel holds responsibility for security."
That account also said, "Clashes broke out between Arabs and Israelis, eventually being dispersed by Border Police officers who arrived at the location. According to reports, several activists were injured during the confrontations," while the Palestinian Red Crescent said two wounded Palestinians, a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man, were treated and taken to the hospital. Another Palestinian was reportedly shot in the knee, and in a separate incident shortly before midnight, settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian homes in the Wadi al-Sheikh area of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
Israel Police investigation
The investigation now turns on two practical questions: who attacked Levine, and how the clash began. Police said they have started to examine the scene after the IDF report, while the competing accounts from Levine, Palestinian media, and the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council leave the sequence of events disputed as the wider West Bank violence continues to be documented location by location.
For Levine, the next step is not a new statement but the outcome of that inquiry, which may show whether police identify anyone in connection with the attack and whether the clash near Abu Falah is treated as part of the broader series of confrontations overnight and Friday morning.
