Hamdan Ballal says he was assaulted by settlers and troopers outdoors his house in Susiya within the occupied West Financial institution.
The Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Different Land says he thought he was going to “die” by the hands of Israeli settlers and troopers earlier than his arrest this week within the occupied West Financial institution.
Hamdan Ballal was arrested on Monday by Israeli forces after he was overwhelmed and injured three weeks after successful his Oscar in Hollywood. He was released on Tuesday from a police station within the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.
The incident befell within the village of Susiya within the southern West Financial institution as residents had been breaking their quick in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Chatting with Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Ballal mentioned he had gone to doc a settler assault on his neighbour’s house in Susiya.
However because the scenario escalated and Ballal realised it had “turn out to be increasingly harmful”, he mentioned he determined to return house to his household.
Nevertheless, a settler identified to him, along with two Israeli troopers, adopted him to his home, Ballal mentioned, including that the assault befell simply outdoors his house.
“They held the gun on to me, the troopers. … The settler went behind me and straight attacked me along with his fingers. I don’t know what he held in his fingers,” he mentioned.
Ballal fell to the bottom because the assault continued.
“The troopers stored on shouting at me, threatening me and placing the gun, one time at my neck. … Additionally they put the gun on my cheek.”
Ballal recalled considering he wouldn’t survive the assault.
“The troopers let him [the settler] beat me, and the troopers additionally beat me with a gun. I fell as a result of it was a tough, arduous assault,” he mentioned. “They centered on my head. They kicked my head and in addition with a gun.
“I felt they had been going to kill me, not simply to punish me. … I felt I might die,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
‘Settlers do what they need’
The documentary No Different Land – directed by Ballal, one other Palestinian and two Israelis – chronicles settler violence and Israeli demolitions of Palestinian houses within the West Financial institution’s Masafer Yatta space. It received the Oscar for greatest documentary on March 2.
Since Israel’s warfare on Gaza started on October 7, 2023, Ballal mentioned the Israeli military “lets the settlers do what they need”.
“As a result of the military [is] right here, they’re settlers with uniforms,” he mentioned.
The Palestinian Ministry of Well being says Israeli troopers and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians within the West Financial institution because the warfare began 17 months in the past.
In response to the rights group Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, about 15,700 Palestinians have been detained since October 2023.
