Fox News' Pete Hegseth caught in crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, documented in new show
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}PROGRAMMING ALERT: On Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT and Monday at 1 a.m. EDT, Fox News will air the latest episodes of "Battle in the Holy Land," with Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth reporting from Israel and the West Bank. The entire series is available now on Fox Nation.
Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth was caught in a crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters in September 2019 while filming the latest episodes of the Fox Nation series "Battle in the Holy Land."
On the last day of shooting, Hegseth and his three-man crew were poised to enter the Palestinian city of Ramallah, on the West Bank.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But when they attempted to pass through an Israeli Defense Force checkpoint, they were turned away. They soon found out why.
"We're hearing explosions or crowd-diversion devices, big black smoke, flashes -- not sure if they're muzzle flashes or explosions," Hegseth reported from the chaotic scene, as captured in the episode.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You've got Palestinian youth, young men in masks mostly or the traditional scarfs, and they're throwing rocks and slingshots toward the Israeli soldiers who have responded, I presume, with tear gas and other forms of defensive munitions," Hegseth said.
He would later learn that the riot was sparked by an Israeli counter-terrorism raid in Ramallah the night before.
After a period of calm, the Fox crew was allowed to enter the Palestinian area.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the episode, Hegseth describes the stark scene: "There's rocks in the road. ... You still got tear gas smoking up right here and off in the distance, maybe 30 feet in front of us, still kids holding rocks, prepared to throw them. So this is daily life.
"To the right, you got more troops, more Palestinian young men facing off with [them]," he observed. "...This is an active scene, big time. And we're in the middle of it."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Suddenly, some of the Palestinians regrouped and barricaded the road with large rocks, effectively trapping the long line of cars entering Ramallah.
Again, the protesters engaged the Israeli soldiers. The troops responded by firing back with what appeared to be tear gas canisters and non-lethal rounds.
"They are throwing rocks at the Israeli forces," Hegseth reported. "We are literally, quite literally, in the middle of the crossfire."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This guy just threw a slingshot over our position, slingshots and rocks straight over our car," he said, as the violence around him escalates.
Palestinians huddled directly in front of the team's vehicle, using it as a shield. Their driver warned them to drop their hand-held cameras.
One of the Palestinian men noticed another camera mounted on the hood of the car. He tore it off and smashed it on the ground, yelling "Allahu Akbar."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hegeth and his crew, who were not injured, were in Israel and the Palestinian territories to give a first-hand account of the dispute that has roiled the region, and the world, for decades. He spoke to people on all sides of the conflict
The West Bank is a contentious territory, often the focus of any potential peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. It consists of 2,000 square miles of land seized by Israel during the 1967 "Six-Day War," when Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
When Israel took control of the land in 1967 it allowed Jewish people to move in, but Palestinians consider the West Bank illegally occupied Palestinian land.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}To watch all of "Battle in the Holy Land," go to Fox Nation or tune into Fox News on Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT and Monday at 1 a.m. EDT.
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Fox News' Nick Givas contributed to this report.