Key Points
- Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was assaulted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, his co-director said.
- The Israeli military said three Palestinian suspects, as well as an Israeli civilian, had been detained.
- Hamdan Ballal won an Oscar this year for his documentary No Other Land.
The Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land was attacked by settlers and arrested by the Israeli army on Monday in the occupied West Bank, according to his co-director Yuval Abraham.
In a post on X, Abraham said a “group of settlers” had set upon Hamdan Ballal.
“They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” Abraham wrote.
The incident took place in the southern West Bank village of Susya, according to the anti-occupation NGO Center for Jewish Nonviolence, whose members said they filmed the events first-hand.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported four Palestinians, including Ballal, were injured in an attack by settlers. According to the report, armed settlers threw stones at the village’s residents, houses and cars.
Ballal was said to have been hit in the head by a stone, and nothing was initially known about his whereabouts or condition.
Lawyer Leah Tsemmel said police told her they’re being held at a military base for medical treatment and she hasn’t been able to speak with them.
Palestinian activists and observers reported that Israeli soldiers took the injured Ballal out of an ambulance and detained him.
The Israeli military said in a statement that three Palestinian suspects, as well as an Israeli civilian, had been detained but denied that a Palestinian had been “apprehended from inside an ambulance”.
It said: “Several terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles near Susya [in the West Bank]. Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock-hurling between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene.”
The military went on to say that when police got to the scene, “several terrorists began hurling rocks” at them.
“In response, the forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israeli Police,” the statement said.
It also said an Israeli citizen was hurt and was evacuated to receive medical care.
Abraham posted a video on X showing masked men running towards the camera, one of them throwing a rock at it and the screen goes black.
“The group of armed KKK-like masked settlers that lynched No Other Land director Hamdan Ballal (still missing), caught here on camera,” the post read.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
No Other Land, which was directed by Israeli-Palestinian activists, won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards.
Shot in nearby Masafer Yatta, the documentary follows a young Palestinian struggling with forced displacement as the Israeli army tears down his community’s homes to make space for a firing zone.
The Israeli army declared Masafer Yatta a restricted military zone in the 1980s.
The West Bank, excluding east Jerusalem, is home to around three million Palestinians as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.
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