Israeli settlers have attacked two Deutsche Welle (DW) reporters in the occupied West Bank, Germany’s international broadcaster said on Saturday.

A correspondent and a cameraman were pelted with large stones and chased on Friday.

The pair were in the Palestinian village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, to report on a planned protest against violence by radical settlers.

They were reportedly able to escape unharmed, but the cameraman’s car was badly damaged.

DW director Peter Limbourg condemned the attack.

“This attack cannot be justified by anything, and we demand quite clearly: the Israeli government must guarantee the safety of all journalists in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.

The Israeli military, which is responsible for security matters in the West Bank, did not initially comment on the matter. A spokesman stated that they would examine the report.

According to Deutsche Welle, which is funded by the German state but operates independently, representatives of other international media were also present during the attack. They were also caught in the hail of stones from the settlers and had to flee.

Since the October 7, 2023, massacres by the Islamist militant group Hamas in Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, radical Israeli settlers have stepped up their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Time and again, they advance into Palestinian villages with firearms, baseball bats and stones, setting fire to houses, cars and fields.

In addition to the approximately 3 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, there are now more than 700,000 Israeli settlers living in around 200 settlements, including East Jerusalem.