AQRABA: Israeli settlers on Tuesday beat an AFP photographer and fired guns in the direction of him and a colleague as they covered ongoing violence by settlers against West Bank olive farmers.
Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a veteran photographer for the international news agency in the Palestinian territory, suffered bruises to his head and torso and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, according to witnesses, his family and fellow journalists.
Ashtiyeh and another AFP photographer, John Wessels, were near the northern village of Aqraba where they noticed an Israeli soldier detaining a man as local Palestinians picked olives.
A quad bike suddenly raced towards the AFP journalists on top of the hill and a man from it opened live fire, with one Palestinian dropping to the ground. He was also hospitalised, with a gunshot to the foot, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
