From Hospital Bed, WaPo Photojournalist Levine Blasts Netanyahu's Account of Settler Attack as 'a Lie'

Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine underwent surgery on a nearly severed finger Friday, a day after being beaten by settlers while covering an attack on Palestinian olive harvesters in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, The Times of Israel reported. Her daughter said the finger had been "cut to the bone," with tendons visible, and Levine also sustained a broken rib and fractured vertebrae in the assault.

Roughly 80 masked settlers descended on the olive grove where Levine was working, beating Palestinians, accompanying activists and the photojournalist herself with sticks and bottles. Speaking from her hospital bed, Levine directly disputed a characterization from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office suggesting settlers had helped her up after she fell, calling it "such a lie and the biggest insult," and insisting it was her Palestinian colleagues, not the settlers, who got her to safety.

The attack drew swift condemnation from Washington. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called it a "despicable act of terror," and several Democratic members of Congress demanded accountability from Israeli authorities. Netanyahu, for his part, acknowledged settler violence as a "scourge" that needed to be eradicated, while still expressing skepticism about some specifics of the incident despite video evidence of the attack.

Levine has covered conflicts around the world for decades, and colleagues have noted that even by those standards, the assault stands out as one of the most violent attacks she has personally experienced while on assignment.