Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian teacher and activist who contributed to the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot and killed in Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron on Monday. An Israeli settler was arrested in connection, identified by Israeli police as Yinon Levi.
In February 2024, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on Levi and three other Israeli settlers for acts of violence and intimidation toward Palestinian civilians. The sanctions were removed by Trump following his return to office in January 2025.
Witnesses speaking to The New York Times claim the shooting occurred after a group of Palestinian residents confronted and then threw stones at settlers who were driving through the fields of Umm al-Khair with a bulldozer. A video from the scene shows Levi in an altercation with the residents, then shooting his gun twice outside of the frame.
Levi was detained on Tuesday, alongside four Palestinians and two foreign nationals, and was released on house arrest on the same day.
There has long been little accountability for Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians. The Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din monitored over 1700 police investigations into ideologically motivated offences against Palestinians in the West Bank between 2005 and 2024, and found that only 3 percent of cases led to a full or partial conviction.
No Other Land documents the ongoing destruction of the region of Masafer Yatta, where Umm Al-Khair is located, by Israeli settlers. In March this year, the documentary’s codirector Hamdan Ballal was attacked in his hometown of Susya, also in Masafer Yatta.
