Oscar-winning Palestinian director says he feared for his kids and family during settlers' attack

Record ID: 1985782

  • Title: Oscar-winning Palestinian director says he feared for his kids and family during settlers' attack
  • Date: 25th March 2025
  • Summary: HEBRON, WEST BANK (MARCH 25, 2025) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL IN HEBRON HOSPITAL CORRIDOR CO-DIRECTOR OF AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY , HAMDAN BALLAL IN HOSPITAL (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-DIRECTOR OF AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY , HAMDAN BALLAL IN HOSPITAL, SAYING: "In the beginning of the, this action and the settler attacked my neighbour's house. And I am a photographer. Yo
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Hebron Israel Palestinians Settlers Susiya West Bank
  • Location: HEBRON, WEST BANK
  • City: HEBRON, WEST BANK
  • Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
  • Reuters ID: LVA001160225032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Oscar-winning director of a documentary on the Israel-Palestinian conflict was released from detention on Tuesday (March 25), a day after being injured and arrested during a raid by Israeli settlers on his village in the occupied West Bank.
    Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the award-winning "No Other Land", said he had been assaulted by settlers after filming them attacking a neighbour's house and then returning to make sure his own house was not attacked.
    "I was just waiting outside, if any settlers or any army were attacking my home," he told Reuters after being released from police custody.
    He said he had been pushed to the ground, while soldiers yelled at him to stand up and pointed their guns at him.
    Shortly before the incident, in which he ended up being arrested by Israeli security forces, a group of settlers attacked a gathering for Iftar, the end of the daily Ramadan fast, at Susiya village near Hebron.
    Israeli police arrested three men, including Ballal, who was injured during the stand-off.
    Monday's incident was the latest in which Israeli settlers have been accused of raiding Palestinian or Bedouin villages and encampments in the West Bank, sometimes to steal livestock. Palestinians and activists who monitor such attacks say the police and army typically stand by without intervening.
    The Israeli military said police and soldiers intervened after Palestinians threw rocks at the vehicles of Israeli citizens and later at Israeli security forces.
    "In response, the forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation," it said in a statement. It denied reports that at least one of the Palestinians was arrested in an ambulance.
    Asked for an update on Ballal's condition and status on Tuesday, the Israeli police sent the statement first issued by the army the previous night.
    Ballal said one of the settlers who took part in the assault was well known to him.
    (Production: Yosri Aljamal, Nuha Sharaf)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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