'Beaten in custody': Israel releases Oscar winning director

Israeli occupation authorities released Oscar winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal after he was beaten and detained by Israeli occupation forces yesterday.

“After spending the night handcuffed and beaten inside a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and on his way home to his family,” wrote the film’s Israeli co-director, Yuval Abraham, in a post on the X platform.

After the assault, Hamdan was handcuffed and blindfolded all night in an army base while two soldiers beat him up on the floor, his lawyer Leah Tsemel said after speaking with him just now. He’s still held in the Kiryat Arba police station.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 25, 2025

Sharing a picture of Ballal on Instagram, their fellow director Basil Adraa wrote: “Hamdan has been released and is currently in the hospital in Hebron receiving treatment. He was beaten by soldiers and settlers all over his body. The soldiers left him blindfolded and handcuffed throughout of military base last night.”

Ballal was detained from his home in the village of Susya in the occupied West Bank, after settlers attacked it yesterday. The settlers not only beat him, but they vandalised his property, shattered his car windows and slashed his tyres.

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