After a fateful night where he suffered attacks and arbitrary detention, Israeli authorities announced the release this Tuesday of Hamdan Ballal, one of the Palestinian directors of the renowned documentary “No Other Land”, the winner of the Oscar just weeks ago, after having been severely beaten by Israeli settlers in Susiya, the town south of the West Bank where he resides.
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“After being handcuffed all night and having been beaten at a military base, Hamdam Ballal is free and is about to return home to his family,” announced Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham on social media X."
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Why was director Hamdan Ballal arrested by the Israeli authorities?
According to AP, the filmmaker’s lawyer, Lea Tsemel, stated that the filmmaker spent the night, along with two other Palestinian men, detained on the floor of a military base while suffering serious injuries caused by the attack. She had previously said that they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, accusations that they deny.
Ballal’s wife also stated that her husband was beaten in front of their house by three men dressed in military uniforms while another filmed the attack.
On Monday night, Abraham alerted through his social media about the arrest of his companion, stating that a group of settlers had beaten him, injuring him in the head and stomach. "The (Israeli) soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took him away, we have no news of him since then," he wrote on social media.
According to the film producer, the events took place around 6:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon, local time, when a dozen Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village, injuring people and destroying properties.
“The group of assailants arrived with batons, knives, and at least one assault rifle; many of them were also wearing masks. Five American Jewish activists went to the scene to document the attack and were violently assaulted by the settlers, who also used stones to destroy their vehicle with the activists inside,” it stated.
During the attack, Ballal was injured, “including blood and swelling,” and when he was being treated in an ambulance, Israeli forces arrested him along with another Palestinian. Since then, nothing was known about him until the news of his release.