Tel Aviv, Israel – Three weeks ago, Hamdan Baral was on stage for Oscar. Oscar won the Best Documentary Award as co-director of “No Other Lands.” It was a moving moment of unity and coexistence.
Bloody and hurt on Tuesday, he spoke to ABC News by phone from a bed at a hospital in Hebron on the West Bank.
“Scary,” Balar said. “Really, I’m afraid. When they attack me, I’ll lose my life.”
Baral said he was badly beaten at the hands of Jewish settlers on Monday at his home just outside the village of Suziya.
Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No other Land, was detained by Israeli forces near his home on the West Bank on March 25, 2025.
Raviv Rose/AP
Settlers harassed residents by throwing stones at the village, including their neighbors.
He began filming before his family rushed into the house, trying to prevent settlers from coming to his house. That’s when the attack began, he said that several men would attack him on the head and body, and attack him with guns.
“It was a tough, hard attack,” Baral said. “You know, I feel I’m dying. This attack was so hard that I’m bleeding from everywhere. I’m crying deeply in my mind. I feel pain everywhere in my body.
He said that in addition to the mediocre settlers, there were two men he described as “soldiers with guns,” but he couldn’t say for certain who they were or which Israeli authority was represented.
The Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli police have denied being involved in any assault.
Israeli authorities said the ball was taken into custody along with several others on suspicion of throwing stones, damaging property and damaging the safety of the area. Jewish settlers were also arrested.
According to a police statement, Palestinians include Baral – was raised in doubt and was held overnight and was eventually released on the condition that “contains conditions including contact with parties and self-relief.”
Police say the investigation is ongoing, but Baral strongly denied that he did something wrong.
“I didn’t throw stones, I had no problems with the settlers,” Baral said. “The settlers attacked me and beat me. That’s all.”
The Oscar-winning documentary in Baral focused on the community’s attempts to resist the Israeli government’s expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank.
According to witnesses on March 24, 2025, Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land, was attacked and taken into custody on the occupied West Bank.
Monica Sipper/Getty Images
The number of Israeli settlers has increased dramatically in the West Bank over the past few decades.
Palestinians, human rights groups and the United Nations have accused them of playing an informal role in attempts to expel Palestinians through the West Bank, carrying out violent attacks designed to threaten, instill fear, and force people from where they ultimately called for generations.
“Since the war, settler violence has been significantly worse,” said Sari Basi, Program Director at Human Rights Watch. “Those whom the military doesn’t directly drive away are left to dodge themselves among the violent settlers who scare them from their land.”
Critics say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition has turned a blind eye to violence at best, and at worst encouraged it completely with its ultimate goal, according to prominent settler activists and far-right members of the government to append the West Bank in full.
The government has denied responsibility for settlers’ violence, primarily blamed Palestinians on continued unrest, but sometimes condemned them as well. The Netanyahu government refers to the West Bank in Jewish and Samaria’s Bible names, claiming that the region is full of Israel-targeting terrorist activities both in the West Bank and within Israel. The government argues that action in the West Bank is necessary to keep Israelis safe.
Activists often say that Israeli police and the IDF, who have secure control over most of the West Bank, have failed to protect them from settlers’ attacks and properly prosecute cases of settlers’ violence. The IDF intervene when the brawl between settlers and activists escalates, but it is rare to prosecute settlers’ violence. From 2005 to 2024, only 3% of the more than 1,000 surveys ended with convictions, according to non-governmental organization Yesh Din.
Settlers often quote deep religious orders for their actions. Others see the attack as a revenge for a deadly Palestinian terrorist attack. Many routinely deny responsibility for violence in the West Bank, which has risen in recent years but has continued for decades.
Baral was released from the hospital Tuesday. ABC News asked why he chose to publicly tell him why he was afraid of his life.
“I’ve been this kind of fear ever since I was born,” Baral said. “So, I have to talk. Yes, I’m afraid, but I’ll live in this situation for the rest of my life. So, I’m talking to (ABC News) so I hope I can change something.”
Guy Davies, Mike Pappano and Morgan Winsor of ABC News contributed to this report.
