Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning co-director of the documentary No Other Land, has been released by the Israeli army after he was beaten and detained by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. His fellow director, Yuval Abraham, who was sharing status updates on this incident through social media, confirmed that he has been freed.
His tweet read, “After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family.”
Hamdan Ballal is free and is about to go home to his family
— Yuval Abraham יוב×Âœ ×ÂÂÂ�בר×”×ÂÂÂ� (@yuval_abraham) March 25, 2025
After being released, he recounted the entire incident to The Associated Press and revealed that he was heavily beaten. The Palestinian filmmaker claimed that the settler kicked his head ‘like a football’ and he was kept blindfolded for more than 20 hours, sitting on the floor under an air conditioner. Ballal said that Israelis detained him and two other Palestinians during an attack on their village.
Ballal said, “I was blindfolded for 24 hours. All the night I was freezing. It was a room, I couldn’t see anything … I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me.”
He also stated during an interview at a West Bank hospital that he doesn’t understand Hebrew, but he heard the Israeli guards say his name and mention the word Oscar. Meanwhile, the settler Shem Tov Luski, who Hamdan claimed was his attacker, refuted these allegations. He stated that Palestinians in the village had thrown stones at his car, and he did not know that Hamdan was an Oscar winner. As per the military, they detained three Palestinians and one Israeli for allegedly hurling rocks.
This incident occurred on Monday night in Susiya, which is a village in the southern West Bank. This area is a part of the Masafer Yatta and is the same region that was highlighted in the documentary No Other Land, which portrays Palestinians striving to resist settler violence.
See Also: Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director Hamdan Ballal Attacked By Israeli Settlers
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