Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to cars and olive trees and beating residents, including American photojournalist Heidi Levine of The Washington Post. Levine was taken to hospital in Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative centre in the central West Bank, after being attacked near the villages of Abu Falah and Turmus Ayya.

Levine said more than 50 settlers "jumped" her as she worked. She was wearing a helmet and a flak jacket marked "Press", which she said probably protected her from worse injuries. "They just kept kicking me and kicking me," she said, adding that the beating lasted about 10 minutes. The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said her passport, phone, wallet and equipment were stolen. A BBC team witnessed one of the attacks near Abu Falah, where settlers in black came down from a hilltop outpost, set trees alight and threw stones, before Israeli forces arrived and fired tear gas. Local officials said 12 Palestinians were injured there, including four dual Palestinian-American citizens. The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported treating 14 wounded people in six locations, and attacks were reported in at least eight villages. Civil defence officials also said a fire truck belonging to volunteers from Turmus Ayya was burned.

The Israeli military said troops and border police went to the area after a report of a "violent confrontation", acknowledged that a female journalist was hurt, and called attacks on civilians "grave and unacceptable". Police opened an investigation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the violence but called the facts disputed and said it would not allow such incidents to be used to "demonize" law-abiding settlers. Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who was present, said soldiers stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" with the attackers. Residents also said soldiers later shot at a village council member in Abu Falah; the army said he was running at troops with a sharp object, which colleagues deny. The US State Department condemned "criminal violence by any party" and called for accountability.

The olive harvest, central to Palestinian livelihoods and culture, has become a focal point of tension. Around 110,000 Palestinian families rely on privately owned groves, according to the Palestinian Farmers' Union. The UN says this year's harvest has already seen more settler attacks than all of last year's season. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least four Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 injured since the harvest began; the UN counts one death and over 120 injuries.

The West Bank has been under Israeli military control since 1967 and is home to about three million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers. Settlements are illegal under international law, and outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, though many receive state support. Rights groups say prosecutions are rare, and the Foreign Press Association and Reporters Without Borders cited impunity. The attack comes ahead of Israel's election on 27 October and 10 days after settlers beat an AFP photographer covering the harvest.