NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley detailed the attack on him and his crew in a report for the network, describing how masked Israeli settlers beat members of the team with sticks and rocks while they were reporting in the occupied West Bank.
Bradley and his team had been interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah, a 51-year-old Palestinian woman who said Israeli settlers had driven her family from their home in Jalud, near Nablus, when a gray car with Israeli license plates approached the group.
At least four masked men identified as Israeli settlers emerged from the vehicle and attacked Abdullah and members of the NBC News team. “They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” Bradley said.
The assault was captured by the NBC News crew’s camera, which showed one of the masked men swinging a stick at the camera operator before the camera fell to the ground.
Bradley said the attackers also damaged the crew’s vehicle and knocked Abdullah unconscious.
“They smashed our car windshield, hit our crew with clubs and beat Aida unconscious,” he noted. “We were able to get her to an ambulance, and our team was treated for minor injuries.”
NBC producer Lawahez Jabari, who was also part of the crew, said she saw one of the attackers carrying a firearm. “Suddenly a car came to us. The settlers had sticks,” she recalled. “I saw a gun, but they didn’t use the gun.”
Camera operator Khaldoon Eid, who lives in the West Bank, stated the crew had not expected to come under attack while reporting from the Palestinian village. “We didn’t expect that — that they would come to attack,” Eid said. “We were in the middle of a Palestinian area next to Palestinian houses.”
Bradley said he was struck twice in the arm and was treated at a nearby clinic. Jabari, Eid and another member of the crew were also injured and received treatment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence in Jalud and nearby Qusra, blaming a “handful of rioters.” “I strongly condemn the criminal acts of violence committed in the villages of Qusra and Jalud,” he said.
NBC News referred TheWrap to its digital report and declined to provide additional comment.
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