News- Middle East: A press group has condemned attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists reporting from the occupied West Bank, urging the Tel Aviv regime to immediately halt the violence.

In a statement released on Monday, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel said that it was "appalled" by the recent assaults against journalists during olive-picking season, which began in early October. 

“Journalists, both local and foreign, have proven to be a clear target as they document an unprecedented level of unchecked violence against Palestinians during this year’s olive harvest,” it said.

The FPA also cited an incident on Saturday, in which masked Israeli settlers armed with clubs and rocks attacked two Reuters employees wearing clearly marked press vests and helmets near the Palestinian village of Beita. 

It further referred to another incident in the same area on October 10, when Israeli settlers violently beat a veteran AFP photographer, who was filming the olive harvest, and set his car on fire.

It quoted the photographer as saying that the attack was one of the worst in his 30-year career and that Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at olive pickers and activists instead of intervening.

“It is the responsibility of Israeli soldiers and police to protect civilians, including journalists. Instead, Israeli forces routinely harass and intimidate journalists, in some cases detaining them and threatening them with deportation,” the press agency said. “This is all part of a deepening climate of hostility toward the media by Israeli authorities.”

It also called on Israeli authorities to investigate settler attacks against journalists and hold those responsible accountable.

Earlier this week, the United Nations warned against a sharp rise in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, reporting 264 attacks in October alone, the highest monthly toll in nearly two decades.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the assaults, which resulted in casualties and property damage, amounted to an average of eight incidents per day.

“Since 2006, OCHA has documented over 9,600 such attacks. About 1,500 of them took place just this year, roughly 15 per cent of the total,” it said in a statement.

Violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has soared since October 7, 2023, when Israel waged its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

At least 1,069 Palestinians have been killed and over 10,300 others injured in the attacks across the West Bank by Israeli occupation forces and settlers, almost none of whom have been held to account by the regime’s authorities.

Source: Press TV