WASHINGTON — US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the attack on Heidi Levine, a veteran American photojournalist with The Washington Post, “a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards,” in a post on X on Saturday, TRT World reported. Levine was covering the West Bank olive harvest when she was attacked on Friday.
Huckabee added, “We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Washington is “very disturbed” by footage of the assault, and TRT World reported that he urged Israeli authorities to “crack down” on violence across the territory. “We’re very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing,” Rubio said.
Earlier, a US Embassy spokesperson said, “We condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and call for investigations, arrests, and convictions, of those responsible,” CBS News reported.
Netanyahu’s office said in a Friday statement that the facts surrounding the incident “remain unclear.” The statement added, “The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence.” Israel’s police and military said they had opened investigations, CBS reported.
Hospital officials confirmed Saturday that Levine remains admitted in moderate condition with spinal fractures, TRT World reported. TRT World noted that Huckabee, a long-standing ally of Israel who has nevertheless condemned previous settler assaults against American nationals, stopped short of explicitly naming the culprits while investigations proceed.
CBS cited Yesh Din, an Israeli group that monitors settlements, for 486 violent incidents against Palestinians over 18 days, 234 of them tied to the harvest.
None of the reports TEH read says who carried out the attack on Levine, and the quoted statements from Huckabee and Rubio name no one.
