JERUSALEM: US Ambassador Mike Huckabee on Saturday demanded that Israel prosecute and jail the assailants in a West Bank settler attack against a Washington Post journalist.

“Attacking a female photographer is a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards,” Huckabee wrote on X, taking a far stronger tone than an earlier statement from Washington.

Huckabee, a staunch ally of Israel who has nonetheless sharply criticized settler attacks against Americans, did not identify the culprits as settlers, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to sow doubt as to their identity.

“Details of who under investigation, but those who attacked unarmed reporter should spend (years) in prison,” Huckabee said.

“We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this.”

Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer, was taken to hospital with broken vertebrae. She was listed on Saturday as being in moderate condition.

She had been covering Palestinians’ annual harvest of olives, which has been repeatedly disrupted by Israeli settlers.

Settlers beat her and stole her passport, telephone, wallet and equipment, according to witnesses.

Netanyahu, who wants to shore up his pro-settlement right-wing base ahead of close-fought October 27 elections, on Friday insisted that Palestinians or “far-left” activists may have been responsible.

The US State Department on Friday took a cautious tone on Levine’s beating, saying It condemns “criminal violence by any party.”