A Palestinian woman and an NBC News team reporting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were attacked and injured by masked Israeli settlers on a Saturday, according to reports from multiple outlets including The Guardian.
Journalists and Palestinian Woman Injured in West Bank Settler Attack
The incident occurred in the Palestinian town of Jalud, near Nablus, where three members of an NBC News team were interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family. According to The Sunday Guardian, the media crew was accompanying the family near a home they had been forced to flee months prior due to ongoing settler pressure.
As the group walked down a hill, a car with Israeli license plates reversed up toward them. At least four men in dark clothes with their faces covered leaped out of the vehicle, hitting Abdullah and the news crew with sticks and throwing rocks at them.
They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,
said NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley, who was hit twice in the arm and later treated at a nearby clinic.
Injuries and Damage to Reporting Equipment
Aida Ahmed Abdullah, 51, was taken for medical care by the Red Crescent after being left on the ground following the attack. According to an Israeli military and Israel Border Police statement, her injuries were not life-threatening. Her husband, Mahmoud Toubasi, stated that her condition improved while she remained hospitalized on Saturday night.
Three additional members of the NBC News team—including a cameraman and producer—were also injured and treated following the assault. Producer Lawahez Jabari described the sudden arrival of the vehicle and noted that while she saw a gun, the attackers did not use it. Camera operator Khaldoon Eid expressed surprise that the violence occurred directly in the middle of a Palestinian village next to residential houses.
In addition to physical assaults on the individuals, the attackers damaged camera equipment and the crew’s vehicles, smashing windshields and puncturing tires to block their exit.
Official Condemnations and Regional Tensions
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his spokesman, Doron Spielman, condemned the violence against Abdullah and the news crew, along with several other incidents that occurred across the area on Saturday. Netanyahu described the actions as criminal acts of violence committed in the villages of Kosra and Jalud by a handful of rioters who violate the law,
adding that they cause enormous injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hinder the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and harm Israel’s international standing.
Israeli security forces reported that violent clashes, including stone-hurling, occurred in the area and that dozens of rioters barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home. Security forces worked to separate the groups, protect residents, and confiscate vehicles suspected of being used by the Israeli rioters. IDF and Israel Border Police forces continued operating in Qusra and Jalud to restore order.
Broader Context of West Bank Violence
The attack in Jalud coincides with a sharp surge in tensions and violence across the West Bank, where journalists, international activists, and Palestinian families face frequent harassment and blockades.
In a separate incident on the same Saturday, dozens of masked Israeli settlers sprayed pepper spray at Palestinian workers and threw rocks at a building in nearby Qusra.
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