Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian English teacher and activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” was shot and killed Monday during a confrontation with Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair.

According to witnesses and human rights groups cited in multiple media reports, the incident began when settlers arrived with a bulldozer and began clearing land near the Palestinian community. Tensions escalated, and Hathaleen, 31, was struck by gunfire. He was transported to an Israeli hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

On Tuesday, Israeli police identified Yinon Levi, a settler from the unauthorized outpost of Havat Ma’on, as the suspect in the shooting. Police detained him on suspicion of “reckless conduct resulting in death and unlawful use of a firearm,” according to the New York Times. Levi was placed under house arrest following a court appearance. An attorney representing Levi says his client acted in self-defense during a confrontation in which stones were thrown.

Levi, who owns an earthworks company that has been used by the Israeli military for demolitions, had previously been sanctioned by the Biden administration for alleged acts of violence against Palestinians. Those sanctions were lifted in January by President Donald Trump. Sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and European Union remain in place.

Hathaleen, a father of three, had long documented life in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills that face displacement due to Israeli military zoning and settlement expansion. Footage he filmed was featured in “No Other Land,” a documentary co-directed by Palestinian and Israeli activists that won Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Hathaleen had visited the United States in June but was detained upon arrival at San Francisco International Airport along with his cousin Eid.

The two were invited to speak at events organized by Kehilla Community Synagogue in the Bay Area. Though they held valid visas, U.S. border officials canceled their entry and deported them the following day without providing a public explanation. Kehilla’s leaders described the treatment as “ridiculous and insane” and held a vigil in protest.

The shooting comes amid rising violence in the West Bank, where confrontations between settlers and Palestinian residents have intensified since the start of the war in Gaza.

Rights groups have long raised concerns about a lack of accountability for violence committed by settlers, noting that Palestinians fall under military law while settlers are generally subject to Israeli civilian law. Settlers say they’re being unfairly blamed for defending themselves against regular Palestinian attacks.

Masafer Yatta, occupied West Bank – Awdah Hathaleen was standing by a fence in the Umm al-Kheir community centre when he was shot in the chest by an Israeli settler on Monday.

The beloved 31-year-old activist and father of three fell to the ground as people rushed over to try to help him. Then an ambulance came out of the nearby illegal settlement of Carmel and took him away.

Israeli authorities have refused to release his body for burial, simply telling his family on Monday night that he had died, depriving them of the closure of laying him to rest immediately, as Islam dictates.

Mourning

Under the scorching sun of the South Hebron Hills, the people of Umm al-Kheir were joined by anti-occupation activists from all over the world – gathered in silence to mourn Awdah, who was a key figure in non-violent resistance against settler violence in Masafer Yatta.

They came together in the same yard where Awdah was standing when he was shot to death by Israeli settler Yinon Levi, who later said, “I’m glad I did it,” according to witnesses.

Rocks had been laid in a circle around Awdah’s blood on the ground, mourners stopping there as if paying their respects.

Around the circle, the elders sat in silence, waiting for news that didn’t arrive on whether Awdah’s body would be returned by the Israeli army.

There is a feeling of shock that Awdah, out of all people, was the one murdered in cold blood, his cousin Eid Hathaleen, 41, told Al Jazeera about his “truly beloved” relative.

“There was [nobody] who contributed as much to the community in Umm al-Kheir as Awdah,” Alaa Hathaleen, 26, Awdah’s cousin and brother-in-law, said.

Advertisement

“I can’t believe that tomorrow I will wake up and Awdah won’t be here.”

Awdah had three children – five-year-old Watan, four-year-old Muhammad, and seven-month-old Kinan – and he loved them above everything else in the world, several of his friends and relatives told Al Jazeera.

“He was a great father,” Alaa said. “The children would go to him more than to their mother.”

Awdah got married in 2019, Jewish Italian activist Micol Hassan told Al Jazeera over the phone. “His wedding was a beautiful occasion in 2019. We organised cars that came from all over Palestine [for it].

“He loved his children so much,” she continued. “Every time he put them to sleep, they cried and asked where their daddy was.”

Hassan, who has been barred from returning to the occupied West Bank by Israeli authorities, also fondly recalled how much Awdah loved coffee and how she would bring him packs of Italian coffee whenever she was able to get to Umm al-Kheir.

Awdah also loved football, playing it every chance he got, even though Umm al-Kheir’s facilities are badly degraded and all the villagers have is a paved yard with dilapidated goalposts.

In fact, Awdah’s last breaths were on that same battered football pitch, possibly the one place in the village where he spent the most time.

No matter how bad settler attacks were, Alaa said, Awdah would sit down with him and discuss their projections and hopes for his favourite team, Spanish side Real Madrid.

“His love for Real Madrid ran in his veins,” Alaa added. “Maybe if they knew how much he loved them, Real Madrid would speak about Masafer Yatta.”

Peaceful activist and ‘radical humanist’

Awdah has been an activist since he was 17 years old, working to stop the Israeli attempts to expel the villagers of Masafer Yatta from their homes and lands.

He hosted countless visiting activists who came to the occupied West Bank to support Palestinian activists and villagers, helping them understand the situation on the ground and embracing their presence with his trademark hospitality.

Perhaps his most famous such collaboration was his work with Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year.

Everyone who spoke to Al Jazeera remembers him as the kindest person, with a brave, peaceful heart.

Advertisement

He was “tayyeb, salim”, they said, using the Arabic words for “kind” and “peaceful”.

Awdah would tell anyone who came to Umm al-Kheir that he didn’t choose to be an activist; it just happened, Hassan told Al Jazeera, adding that he welcomed everyone, regardless of faith or citizenship.

“He was a radical humanist,” she said.

“He wanted the occupation to end without suffering,” said Alaa, adding that Awdah always thought about what the future would bring for his children and others.

He chose to become an English teacher because of that, Eid told Al Jazeera. He wanted the village children to grow up educated and able to tell the world their story in English, so they could reach more people.

“He taught all his students to love and welcome everyone regardless of their faith and origin,” said Eid.

A group of his students – he taught English from grades one through nine in the local school – huddled together in the community centre yard among the mourners, remembering their teacher.

“He would always try to make classes fun,” said Mosab, nine years old.

“He made us laugh,” added his classmate Mohammed, 11.

Murdered by a raging settler

Umm al-Kheir is one of more than 30 villages and hamlets in the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta, a region that, more than any, has seen the consequences of the expansion of settlements and violence linked to it.

The incident that led up to Awdah’s killing began the day before, recounted activist Mattan Berner-Kadish, who had been in Umm al-Kheir providing protective presence to the Palestinian community.

A digger was to be delivered to the illegal settlement, and the villagers had agreed to coordinate the passage of the machinery with the settlers, to prevent any damage to village infrastructure.

But the settler driving the machinery ran over a water pipe and began rolling over other infrastructure, threatening to roll into the town and cause more damage.

When villagers gathered to try to stop the machinery, the operator used the digger’s claw to hit one of them in the head, dropping him to the ground, semi-conscious.

Awdah was 10-15 metres (30-50 feet) away from the altercation, standing in the community centre yard, looking on.

In the chaos, gunshots started ringing out, and Berner-Kadish saw Yinon Levi shooting at people. Amid the screams and panic, he realised that Awdah had been shot.

An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN — Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025

He tried to calm Levi down, telling him that he had directly shot someone and likely killed him. To which Levi responded: “I’m glad I did it.”

Advertisement

Berner-Kadish also tried to talk to the Israeli soldiers who arrived on the scene, only to hear from three of them that they wished they had been the ones to shoot Awdah.

Following the murder, the Israeli army arrested five men from the Hathaleen family. On Tuesday, the Israeli army closed the area around Umm al-Kheir, restricting any access to it.

Also on Tuesday, Levi was released to house arrest by Israeli courts, which charged him with negligent homicide.

Levi was sanctioned by Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for violent attacks on Palestinians.

The five Hathaleen men arrested after Awdah was killed are still in Israeli custody, Alaa told Al Jazeera.

Weeping, he fretted: “What if [the Israelis] return [Awdah’s] body and they can’t pay their last tribute to them?”

Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist who helped make the Oscar and Berlinale prize-winning documentary No Other Land, has been killed in the southern West Bank.

Israeli settler Yinon Levi has been arrested by Israeli police for questioning, although no charges have been filed against him, according to a report by The Guardian.

The attack was caught on video, which appears to show Levi, who was put under sanctions by the US president, Joe Biden, then removed from the sanctions list by Donald Trump, firing a gun at the time of the killing.

Yuval Abraham, the Israeli co-director of No Other Land, shared a video of the attack on Instagram.

“My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening,” Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of No Other Land, wrote on social media. “He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life. This is how Israel erases us – one life at a time.”

Settler and Israeli military violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has been intensifying. The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that at least 1,009 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank since October 2023.

Filmed from 2019 to 2023, No Other Land follows activist Adra as he documents the destruction of Palestinian houses and villages in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank by Israeli military bulldozers. Adra’s efforts to raise awareness gain momentum with the support of Israeli journalist Abraham, with whom he builds a friendship.

It is co-directed by Adra, Abraham, Hamdan Ballal – who was attacked by Israeli settlers and soldiers in his West Bank home earlier this year – and Rachel Szor; producers are Fabien Greenberg and Bard Kjoge Ronning for Antipode Films and Yabayay Media.

The film made its debut at the Berlinale in 2024, winning the Panorama audience award and Berlinale documentary award. It went on to win nearly 70 awards after playing widely on the film festival circuit, culminating in victory at the Academy Awards – the first time a documentary has won an Oscar without a distribution company attached in the US.

A prominent Palestinian activist who worked on an Oscar-winning documentary about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has allegedly been shot dead by a Jewish settler.

Awdah Hathaleen, one of the activists from the village of Masafer Yatta near Hebron featured in the film No Other Land, was killed near the southern West Bank village of Umm al Khair on Monday.

Witnesses said he was shot by a Jewish settler during a confrontation near the Carmel settlement next to the village.

Awdah Hathaleen was 31 and had three children.

“I can hardly believe it. My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening,” No Other Land co-director Basel Adra said on social media.

” He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life. This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time. ”

Basel Adra gave an emotional tribute to his friend Awdah Hathaleen online. (X/@basel_adra)

The witnesses identified the settler responsible as Yinon Levi, who had previously been sanctioned by the United States for using violence to displace Palestinians.

Video shows him firing a gun and yelling at a group of Palestinians, who village residents said were trying to stop an excavator driving onto Palestinian land.

Israel announces major expansion of West Bank settlements Photo shows A drone view of a settlement with rows of houses and roads. Israel’s government has approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli media reported that Mr Levi was arrested but the Jerusalem Magistrates Court allowed him to return home on remand while the case is investigated.

Police reportedly told the court Palestinians were throwing stones at Yinon Levi and another settler, a child, and “it appeared their lives were in danger”.

Prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro, from Hebron, told the ABC the loss of his friend was devastating.

“His killing was really a shock for me but to be honest it was not a surprise. We all think that one day we might be killed by the Israeli violent settlers who do everything without any accountability,” he said.

“He was one of the best activists for Palestine, for peace, for non-violent resistance.”

Mourners removed while paying condolences

On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers ejected mourners from a tent set up in Umm al Kheir and fired stun grenades at people who had gathered to pay condolences to Awdah Hathaleen’s family.

Israeli members of parliament and the Carmel settlement have expressed support for his alleged killer, Yinon Levi, describing him as a “pioneer”.

The Carmel settlement reportedly said of the killing that its residents: “will not accept a reality in which a Jew is attacked, and definitely not on the property of the settlement.”

” This event could have ended in the murder of a Jew had he not defended himself. ”

In 2024 the US State Department sanctioned Mr Levi, saying: “(He) regularly led groups of violent extremists who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank. His groups assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property. Levi and other extremists have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank.”

But the Trump administration removed the sanctions and those placed on other settlers after taking office this year.

Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been allegedly gunned down and killed in the West Bank adjoining Israel.

Yuval Abraham, who co-directed the film with Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, claimed on his X page that Israeli settler Yinon Levi had shot Hathaleen, who is also known as Odeh Hadalin and is from the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta.

“An Israeli settler just shot Odah Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Levi, sanctioned by the EU and U.S., as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy,” Abraham posted. The Israeli filmmaker included a video that apparently shows Levi with a gun in hand and in a confrontation with Palestinians.

Co-director Adra on his own X page posted the statement: “This is the settler who killed our dear friend Awdah Hathaleen. At the end of the video, he fires the bullet that took the life of Awdah. Today, the apartheid court decided to release him to house arrest. Yinon Levi, a settler sanctioned by 9 countries (now 8, because of Trump).”

The Hollywood Reporter has also independently verified that the July 28 incident that led to the death of Hadalin took place. It’s understood Levi was arrested after the shooting incident and has since been released and is now held under house arrest.

Levi is also subject to financial sanctions and a travel ban from the EU due to “serious human rights violations and abuses” first imposed in April 2024.

The U.S. under President Joe Biden in Feb. 2024 sanctioned Levi for leading violent extremist groups in the West Bank, but those measures against Levi were lifted by the Trump administration in Jan. 2025.

The No Other Land documentary, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective and which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers. The film also centers on the filmmaking partnership between co-directors Adra and Abraham.

Another of the No Other Land co-directors, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, was injured and detained after a conflict that took place on the West Bank in March.