Key Points
- An NBC News crew and a Palestinian woman were attacked Saturday by masked Israeli settlers while reporting in Jalud, a Palestinian town near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
- NBC News said international correspondent Matt Bradley, producer Lawahez Jabari, camera operator Khaldoon Eid and another team member were injured.
- Video showed a vehicle with Israeli license plates reversing toward the group before masked men got out and attacked them with sticks and rocks.
An NBC News crew and a Palestinian woman were attacked by masked Israeli settlers while reporting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank over the weekend, the network reported on Sunday.
The attack occurred in Jalud, a Palestinian town near Nablus, while NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley, producer Lawahez Jabari, camera operator Khaldoon Eid and other members of the team were interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family. Abdullah had told the network that Israeli settlers had driven the family from their home.
According to NBC News, the crew and Abdullah were walking down a hill toward the house when a gray car with Israeli license plates reversed up the hill toward them. Video published by the network showed masked men, some carrying sticks, getting out of the vehicle and attacking the group.
“They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” Bradley said.
Bradley said he was hit twice in the arm and was treated at a nearby clinic. Jabari and Eid were also injured and treated after the attack. Abdullah, 51, was taken for medical care by the Red Crescent. Israeli security forces said her injuries were not life-threatening.
“Suddenly a car came to us,” Jabari said after receiving treatment. “The settlers had sticks. I saw a gun, but they didn’t use the gun.”
Eid, who lives in the West Bank, said the team did not expect to be attacked in the middle of a Palestinian village.
“We were in the middle of a Palestinian area next to Palestinian houses,” Eid said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence in Jalud and nearby Qusra, where other incidents were reported Saturday. NBC News said masked Israeli settlers also pepper-sprayed Palestinian workers and threw rocks at a building in Qusra.
Netanyahu described the incidents as “criminal acts of violence” committed by “a handful of rioters who violate the law, cause enormous injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hinder the IDF in fulfilling its missions and harm Israel’s standing in the world.”
Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, said the actions “violate the law,” endanger Jews and Arabs and interfere with Israeli security operations. He said Netanyahu had asked security forces to apprehend those responsible.
Israeli security forces said they received reports of violent clashes in the area, including stone-throwing toward Palestinians and other civilians. Security forces said they found dozens of rioters barricaded inside a Palestinian home while Palestinian residents were inside, removed the rioters and confiscated vehicles suspected of being used to reach the area.
The attack came amid heightened tensions in the West Bank, where NBC News reported a recent increase in settler violence. The village of Qusra has been under pressure for weeks after settlers began blocking supplies from reaching Palestinian homes, according to the report.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli forces or settlers killed 76 Palestinians in the West Bank between January 1 and July 24. Three Israelis were killed during the same period.
In a statement released on Monday, the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the attack on NBC News and the Palestinian woman and urged members of Congress and U.S.-based media outlets to do the same.
“This horrific attack on American journalists is typical of extremist Israeli settlers, whose violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians has been supported and defended by the Israeli apartheid government. Let’s be clear: Israeli settlers are not rogue actors; they are doing exactly what the Israeli government has enabled them to do,” CAIR said in a statement.
The organization continued: “Israeli settlers and military forces have also consistently targeted journalists to ensure their atrocities are not exposed to the American people and the people of the world. We call on all members of Congress and all members of the American media to condemn this attack — these crimes keep happening because our government continues to fund and enable the Israeli government, regardless of the crimes it commits. This must end.”
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