{"id":336730,"date":"2025-08-11T21:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336730\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:34:13","slug":"palestinian-activist-killed-by-settler-filmed-his-shooting-footage-shows-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336730\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian activist killed by settler filmed his shooting, footage shows | West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Awdah Hathaleen, the prominent Palestinian activist who was killed late last month<\/a> by an extremist Jewish settler in the West Bank, filmed the moment he was shot, newly released video footage reveals.<\/p>\n

Hathaleen, who worked on the filming of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land<\/a>, which examined settler violence against the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was killed by Yinon Levi<\/a>, a settler who was already under sanctions in the UK and EU for violent acts against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The footage \u2013 released by the Israeli human rights group B\u2019Tselem<\/a> \u2013 appears to offer clear evidence of Levi\u2019s direct involvement in the killing of Hathaleen, an English teacher and activist resident in Umm al-Khair in the south Hebron hills, on 28 July, in an incident that sparked international outrage.<\/p>\n

Levi was arrested over the killing but quickly released by a court after a ruling that the evidence he had fired at Hathaleen had \u201cweakened\u201d.<\/p>\n

Levi has denied he fired the shot that killed Hathaleen. However, the footage filmed by Hathaleen himself shows Levi draw his weapon and fire in Hathaleen\u2019s direction. Hathaleen is then heard groaning and falling to the ground.<\/p>\n

Hathaleen was filming settlers operating an earth mover when he was shot. According to witnesses, a confrontation that was taking place between Levi and Palestinian residents became more heated when the digger attempted to approach a fenced-off grove belonging to a Palestinian family, with at least one stone thrown.<\/p>\n

The footage, filmed from some distance away, shows Levi waving a gun and scuffling with residents as they attempt to block the earth mover.<\/p>\n

Levi can then be seen taking several steps to his right before raising his gun, aiming it in Hathaleen\u2019s direction, and firing. The footage sharply contradicts claims by Levi\u2019s lawyer, Avichai Hajbi, that he had been \u201cforced to fire his weapon into the air\u201d because he felt his life was in danger.<\/p>\n

\"PalestinianPalestinian activist recorded moment he was killed by settler in West Bank \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Hathaleen\u2019s footage is backed up by witness evidence provided to B\u2019Tselem, including by his brother-in-law Alaa Hathaleen, who was present at the time of the killing and is seen in the footage remonstrating with Levi at close quarters and attempting to film the events himself with his phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe settler Yinon Levi arrived,\u201d Alaa Hathaleen told B\u2019Tselem. \u201cThe residents shouted at him, and he drew his gun. I tried to film him pulling out the gun, but he attacked me and grabbed my phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, while we were trying to move people away and the excavator was already on the road leading to the settlement, Yinon Levi fired one shot, and then another shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard shouts: \u2018Awdah! Awdah!\u2019 I turned around and found my cousin Awdah lying in the public garden of Umm al-Khair\u2019s community centre. He was bleeding heavily from the chest and mouth. It turned out he had been shot while filming the events, from about 40 meters away, behind a metal fence we had put up around the garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi was sanctioned by the UK in 2024, along with others, because he \u201cused physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Levi\u2019s treatment by the courts since the shooting is in line with a long history of lenient treatment by both the Israeli civilian and military courts of Israelis who kill Palestinians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Awdah Hathaleen, the prominent Palestinian activist who was killed late last month by an extremist Jewish settler in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-336730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115012282952756798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}