The Oscar-winning director of a documentary on the Israel-Palestinian conflict was released from detention on Tuesday, a day after being injured and arrested in the West Bank by the IDF.
The IDF denied claims made on Monday by No Other Land Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham on X/Twitter that Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Academy Award-winning documentary, was taken from an ambulance by IDF soldiers.
Abraham said that Ballal was beaten, bleeding, and wounded in his head and stomach. Abraham also added that Ballal had since disappeared and that it's "unclear whether he is receiving medical treatment or what is happening to him."
Ballal was attending a gathering for Iftar, the end of the daily Ramadan fast, at Susiya village near Hebron, when a group of settlers attacked the gathering, said Jihad Nawajaa, head of the Susiya local council.
"Dozens of settlers attacked the gathering at Iftar," Nawajaa told Reuters by phone. "The young men came out to prevent them, and there were about eight injuries on our side."
Israeli police arrested three men, including Ballal, who was injured during the standoff, he said.
"This is not the first time that the settlers attacked our gathering, but in the recent period the attacks have increased," he said, adding that the settlers had stolen around 10 sheep from the village during the attack.
Lamia Ballal, the filmmaker's wife, said settlers had gathered around the family house and her husband had gone outside to prevent them from breaking in.
"The settlers attacked him and started beating him, and then they arrested him, we do not know anything about him," she told Reuters.
Haaretz reported that Ballal was handcuffed and blindfolded on the ground of an IDF base while two soldiers guarded him.
Ballal said that two soldiers who were guarding him beat him and fired two shots in the air to intimidate him.
The two other Palestinians arrested said that a notable settler in the community attacked them in their homes alongside some 15 masked Israeli youths and that IDF soldiers did not intervene to help, Haaretz reported.
Haaretz reported that three reported that they were left outside, bound and blindfolded overnight.The IDF responds to claims
The military reported that several terrorists had thrown rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles near Susya in the West Bank.
Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving "mutual rock-throwing" between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene.
The IDF and Israel Police arrived to disperse the confrontation as several terrorists began throwing rocks at the security forces.
In response, soldiers arrested three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israel Police. An Israeli citizen was injured in the incident and was evacuated to receive medical treatment.
Contrary to claims, no Palestinian was apprehended from inside an ambulance, the military added.
Abraham wrote on the social media platform in Hebrew and English. He then uploaded a video with a masked settler whom he claims to be one of the individuals who attacked Ballal's village, adding that "they continued to attack American activists, breaking their car with stones. Hamdan’s location is still unknown."
I'm standing with Karam, Hamdan's 7 year old son, near the blood of Hamdan's in his house, after settlers lynched him. Hamdan, co-director of our film No Other Land, is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding. This is how they erase Masafer Yatta. pic.twitter.com/72pT3UF3kj
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) March 24, 2025
Abraham then retweeted a post by another co-director of the film, Basel Adra, where he said that he was standing with Ballal's son, Karam, "near the blood of Hamdan in his house after settlers lynched him.
"Hamdan, co-director of our film No Other Land, is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding. This is how they erase Masafer Yatta," referring to the region in the West Bank that is the central setting in the documentary.
Winning at the Oscars and backlash
No Other Land won Best Documentary at the last Academy Awards earlier this month. On the Oscars stage, Abraham did reference the remaining hostages that are still held in the Gaza Strip.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger,” Abraham said about the movie. "We see each other; the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end; [and] the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, who must be freed. We are intertwined… Together, there is another way.”
Several days after Abraham's speech at the Oscars, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) issued a statement condemning the documentary for violating the movement's "anti-normalization guidelines." PACBI argued that the film's production and participation of Israeli figures in its creation place it in direct conflict with the standards set by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The film had also made its Jerusalem debut shortly before it won the Oscar, with a screening at Cinema Spiegel, part of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, following a conversation with Abraham.
Hannah Brown, Noa Feigenbaum, and Hannah Rozenblat contributed to this report.