A BBC team witnessed one of several settler attacks during an olive harvest near Khirbet Abu Falah on Friday, which a local official said injured 12 Palestinians, including four dual Palestinian-American citizens, as well as Heidi Levine.
The veteran photojournalist, who was wearing a flak jacket clearly marked “PRESS” on the front and back, said she was knocked to the ground by a group of settlers, kicked repeatedly, and stripped of her cameras and phone.
She suffered four broken vertebrae, a broken rib and lacerations across her body. She required surgery on a finger that was ripped open.
In a telephone interview with the BBC’s Today programme from her hospital bed in central Israel on Monday, Levine said it “could have been a lot worse”.
“We [journalists] don’t always want to wear flak jackets and helmets – it’s heavy, it can be a pain when other people aren’t wearing them, you feel kind of silly – but we all did and I’m grateful for that.”
“I think I would have suffered more serious injuries for sure, especially [to] my head. I tried to keep my face to the ground as much as I possibly could so that protected it… I don’t guess, but I know that I’m actually really, really lucky.”
Huckabee called the attack on Levine a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards” and said they should spend years in prison.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump “does not want to see friction or anything – a crisis in the West Bank”.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had told Levine that the “despicable behaviour of the perpetrators of this attack does not represent the citizens or the values of the State of Israel”.
On Saturday, a delegation of Belgian, French, Polish and Catholic Church envoys visited Taybeh, about 6km (4 miles) to the south of Abu Falah, to watch an olive harvest.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister, Maxime Prevot, said a car from its consulate was damaged and that a French mayor, Bernard Baudoux, was assaulted.
Video from the scene showed masked settlers confronting the convoy and a man wearing a French tricolour sash slumped beside a vehicle. Reports suggested that stones were thrown.
Prevot condemned the attack in the strongest terms and said that Israel, as the occupying power, had to protect Palestinians, ensure the safety of diplomats and journalists, and bring those responsible to justice.
The European Union also demanded “full accountability”.
