Israeli settlers attack and beat Palestinians, U.S. journalist in West Bank

One more illegal outpost, manned by hardline Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Ominous squatters perched on a hill. It is from here they've been launching near-daily attacks on Palestinians and their property in the village of Abu Falah. Friday, a holy day for Muslims, no exception. Majdi Fahid is a farmer. Me and my mom, we was trying to get the olive, and they just attacking us with the guns, with the rocks. The Washington Post's Heidi Levine, a seasoned photojournalist, was also injured, knocked to the ground, she says, and beaten by the settlers. Luckily I had my flak jacket and my helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here because they just kept kicking me. Settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied territories have spiked with the start of the annual olive harvest. Earlier this week, the settlers attacked the trees themselves. Distraught villagers, including Raji Rajah, wanted us to see. It's broken in the morning. This happened this morning? Yeah, in the morning, before two or three hours. And they just come in with a saw? Yeah, yeah, we have over 100. A U.N. report says 2,500 olive trees and saplings have already been damaged during this year's harvest just two weeks in. So we're being called back because the villagers who deal with these guys every day say they'll quickly come down the hill on their truck. We saw them go up. We can see a lot of movement up there. Looks like there are a lot of them, but we're going to listen to local knowledge. And they did come down on the run and there were lots of them. It was a preview of Friday's confrontation with the Palestinians trying to push the settlers back to show them, they say, that they're determined to protect what's theirs and stay on the land until the Israeli army turned up to lob tear gas at the Palestinians. The Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a statement calling the facts surrounding Friday's events unclear. Margaret Evans, CBC News, Abu Falah, in the Occupied Territories.