Ramallah – August 9th, 2025 The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemns the serious assault committed by Israeli settlers on Saturday morning against several journalists and media crews while they were carrying out their professional duties in the town of Beita, south of Nablus. Journalists were subjected to pursuit, verbal and physical assaults, and attempts to prevent them from covering events, a blatant violation of press freedom and the public’s right to know.
This attack resulted in injuries to RANIN SAWAFTEH, a Reuters photojournalist, who suffered fractures and bruises following a direct assault and was transferred to the hospital for treatment. Multiple members of the Al Jazeera crew were also injured, including the channel’s reporter MOHAMMAD AL-ATRASH and cameraman LOAY AL-SAEED. In addition, NASSER ISHTAYEH, a photojournalist with US SIPA, was injured during the same incident.
This attack comes amid an alarming escalation of systematic settler assaults against journalists across various parts of the West Bank, often carried out under the direct protection of Israeli occupation forces, with the aim of silencing journalists and preventing the exposure of violations committed by settlers and soldiers against Palestinian civilians. Such impunity and lack of accountability only serve to encourage the continuation of these crimes.
MADA warns of the grave implications of this growing pattern of attacks, particularly as they seek to silence the press and suppress the truth at a time when the situation on the ground calls for greater journalistic presence, not restriction. The organization affirms that targeting journalists constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law, which guarantees the protection of journalists as civilians during conflicts and criminalizes any assault that endangers their lives or freedom.
MADA calls on the international community, the European Union, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to intervene urgently to halt settler attacks, hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure the protection of Palestinian journalists who have become direct targets of a deliberate policy aimed at restricting media freedom and obstructing truth from reaching the world.
MADA also renews its call to the Palestinian Authority and international institutions operating in the Palestinian territories to strengthen protection measures for journalists, provide them with legal and professional support, and pursue these crimes before the relevant international bodies.
Targeting journalists is, in essence, targeting the truth itself, yet these assaults will not deter the Palestinian press community from continuing to fulfill its professional and humanitarian mission.
