Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land attacked by Israeli settlers

Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank after he was beaten and injured by Israeli settlers, his fellow co-director Yuval Abraham said in a post on X.

“A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding,” Abraham said in the post.

“Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” he added.

קבוצת מתנחלים תקפה את הבית של חמדן בלל, שביים איתי את הסרט אין ארץ אחרת שזכה באוסקר. הכו אותו בראש ובכל הגוף. בעוד פצוע ומדמם, חיילים נכנסו לאמבולנס שהזמין, ועצרו אותו. מאז נעלם ולא ברור אם הוא מקבל טיפול רפואי ומה קורה לו.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025

“We don’t know where Hamdan is because he was taken away in a blindfold,” Josh Kimelman, one of the activists who was at the scene, told The Associated Press.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commented that no Palestinian had been detained from an ambulance, and that three Palestinians and an Israeli had been detained after being suspected of “rock hurling” at security forces. Ballal was not named as one of the detainees.

Ballal was set upon in Susya, his home village, by at least a dozen masked people, many of them teenagers armed with rocks, sticks and knives, according to five Jewish-American activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who were also at the scene.

The activists said they had gone to the village to document the incident and had come under attack themselves, with masked settlers smashing their car windows, and punching and hitting them with sticks.

Israel’s army confirmed that IDF soldiers and Israeli police had arrived to stop the confrontation.

"In response, the forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation," the IDF said.

"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."

No Other Land, a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest and violence to document the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, by the Israeli military.

The film won several international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It also won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards this year.