‘They beat me and threatened me with guns': Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal recounts Israeli settler attack

The No Other Land director is being treated in a hospital in Hebron, fellow director says

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Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal is being treated in hospital in Hebron after being released from Israeli custody in the occupied West Bank, his co-director on the Oscar-winning No Other Land documentary said on Tuesday,

Mr Ballal and two other Palestinians were arrested by Israeli authorities on Monday evening after more than a dozen settlers stormed his home village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta. Witnesses said he was arrested while receiving medical assistance in an ambulance, but the Israeli military denied this. His fellow director Yuval Abraham said that Mr Ballal was attacked by a "group of settlers" who "beat him".

"He has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him." Activists from the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence who were on the scene confirmed the attack, and accused the Israeli military of doing nothing to stop it.

The trio were released on Tuesday afternoon from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. Mr Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, and the three were driven to a hospital in the neighbouring Palestinian city of Hebron.

After his release, Mr Ballal told reporters soldiers and settlers beat him and threatened him with guns. “The soldiers shot three times in the air,” he said. He was blindfolded and had his hands tied while in detention and made to sit under the air conditioning. “I was freezing all night.”

Mr Ballal said he was assaulted by settlers when he filmed them attacking his neighbour’s house. “I went there to document what was happening there.”

He returned when he saw the settlers starting to throw stones. “I was so scared if they come to my family or my kids,” he told Reuters from hospital. After he retreated, he said he was beaten by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

“In that moment I was just thinking about my family and my kids.”

He said he had been pushed to the ground, while soldiers yelled at him to stand up and pointed their guns at him. "It's crazy, you can imagine your family, your kids inside the home and you need to protect them," he said.

"Hamdan has been released and is currently in the hospital in Hebron receiving treatment," his co-director on the film No Other Land, Basel Adra, wrote on Instagram. "He was beaten by soldiers and settlers all over his body. The soldiers left him blindfolded and handcuffed throughout of military base last night."

Mr Ballal and the other directors of the film, which looks at the struggles of living under Israeli occupation in Masafer Yatta, won the award for best documentary at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month. News of his detention drew condemnation from across the film industry.

Hamdan Ballal in hospital in Hebron. Photo: Basel Adra / Instagram

Palestinian residents say around two dozen settlers – some masked, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms – attacked the West Bank village as residents were breaking their Ramadan fast. Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones, they said.

The Israeli military said on Monday that it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at troops and one Israeli civilian involved in what it described as a "violent confrontation". On Tuesday, it referred further queries to police, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Activist group films Israeli settler attack that injured Hamdan Ballal

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Lawyer Lea Tsemel said her clients had spent the night on the floor of a military base while receiving only minimal care for their injuries. She had earlier said they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations they deny.

Read more: Witnesses describe settler attack on Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal

Israel’s military declared Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets, a military training zone in the 1980s in a move that paved the way for the expulsion of Palestinian residents. Many have stayed, but face constant raids by the Israeli military to demolish property. The communities also face violence from nearby settlements, and this has increased greatly since the Gaza war began.