The Israeli military has confirmed arresting three Palestinians in the Masafar Yatta area, without naming Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, Al Jazeera reported.
In a post on X, it said it sent soldiers to the village of Susya to defuse tensions after “terrorists” threw stones at Israeli settlers. But the “terrorists” began throwing stones at the soldiers and the police, resulting in the arrest of three Palestinians and an Israeli, it said.
However, It denied reports that a “Palestinian was arrested while inside an ambulance”.
Earlier, Israeli journalist and No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham had said that a group of “armed KKK-like masked settlers” had “lynched” Ballal and that he had injuries to his stomach and head. But Israeli “soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him”, AFP had reported.
In a post on X, Abraham said a “group of settlers” had set upon Ballal. “They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” Abraham wrote.
He clarified in a subsequent post that, “Hamdan was assaulted and beaten up, not murdered. My use of ‘lynched’ was a mistranslation from Hebrew (English isn’t my first language). He’s injured and being held at a police station in a settlement. They did not let his lawyer speak to him yet so we don’t know more.”
The incident took place in the southern West Bank village of Susiya, according to the anti-occupation NGO Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, whose members said they filmed the events first-hand. Abraham also shared footage of the attack by the Israeli settlers in a post on X which showed the attackers hurling rocks at a vehicle.
The video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night, Al Jazeera reported seperately.
The activists rush back to their car. “Get in, get in!” one shouts, and they duck inside as the thuds of rocks can be heard hitting the car.
“Car window was broken,” the driver says as they drive off.
A group of 10 to 20 masked settlers also attacked Jewish activists at the scene with stones and sticks, smashed their car windows and slashed their tyres.
