West Bank Activist's body held as suspect in his killing is released

Israeli police have refused to release the body of the Palestinian activist and journalist Awdah Hathaleen, while the settler accused of killing him has been released from custody.

- William Christou Quique Kierszenbaum

Awdah Hathaleen, who helped make the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was fatally shot on Monday night during a confrontation between residents and settlers driving a bulldozer in the occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Kheir.

A video appears to show Yinon Levi firing his gun wildly and then people screaming as Hathaleen, who was standing some distance away, collapsed.

Levi was released from custody by a court on Tuesday and placed under three days of house arrest, which ends today and allows him to roam free. According to Levi's lawyer, Avihai Hajabi, the court found there was evidence that he acted in self-defence, and ordered his release.

Levi, who was put under sanctions by the former US president Joe Biden and later removed from the sanctions list by Donald Trump, could still face charges. However, Hathaleen's family are still struggling to recover his body so they can hold his funeral.

Salem Hathaleen, Hathaleen's older brother, said: "It's devastating. His body is still being held and the killer is free. His mother and his wife, they keep asking where he is, when his body will come back. I have no answers anymore. I tell them an hour, two hours, but I don't know."