They won't stop' Oscar winner fears more settler violence after recent attack

It was about 6pm, just after its Palestinian residents had finished their daily Ramadan fast, when dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with batons, knives and assault rifles, entered the West Bank village of Susiya in the rural area of Masafer Yatta in the south Hebron hills.

- Lorenzo Tondo

It was about 6pm, just after its Palestinian residents had finished their daily Ramadan fast, when dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with batons, knives and assault rifles, entered the West Bank village of Susiya in the rural area of Masafer Yatta in the south Hebron hills. With them were a group of Israeli soldiers who escorted the settlers into the village where Hamdan Ballal, one of four directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, lives.

About three weeks after appearing on stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles to accept the Oscar, Ballal has become the victim of the very violence shown in his film.

Ballal said that two Israeli soldiers had chased him outside his house and encircled him, while a settler started beating him, before violently striking him on the head with the butts of their rifles. Bleeding from his head, handcuffed and blindfolded, Ballal, whose documentary chronicles the struggle by Palestinians in the West Bank to stop the army from demolishing their villages, was then moved to a military base and held in custody for one night before being released the next day. "It was a revenge for our movie," he said.

The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to Ballal's allegations that he was beaten by soldiers in front of his house.

The incident shed light on the escalating violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the latest Gaza war on 7 October 2023, amid threats by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his far-right government to annex occupied Palestinian territory - an objective that could be put in reach by Donald Trump's administration, which rescinded sanctions imposed on violent Israeli settler groups.