Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian activist and co-director of the award-winning documentary No Other Land, was attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday before being arrested by the Israeli military while still injured.

The assault took place near the village of At-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills region, where Ballal has long documented settler violence and Israeli state-backed displacement. According to eyewitnesses from the activist group Youth of Sumud, Ballal was filming in the area when a group of settlers surrounded and physically assaulted him.

Rather than detaining the attackers, Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene and arrested Ballal, dragging him away while injured. Ballal’s current condition is unknown, and no charges have been publicly announced.

Ballal’s detention follows his rising international profile. No Other Land, which he co-directed with Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, has been screened to acclaim across Europe and the Middle East. The documentary exposes the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta region—one of the largest mass eviction zones in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has declared “firing zones” on Palestinian homes.

“This arrest is nothing less than an attack on journalism, on truth-telling, and on the global campaign to expose what’s happening in Masafer Yatta,” Abraham wrote on social media. “The people responsible for the violence walk free while the person who filmed it is in jail.”

Ballal is one of the most visible Palestinian voices in documenting the Israeli regime’s practices in the South Hebron Hills. His arrest is being condemned by human rights organizations, who say it represents a broader strategy to criminalize Palestinian documentation of Israeli settler and military crimes.

The Crustian Daily will continue tracking Ballal’s detention, efforts to secure his release, and the growing crackdown on Palestinian voices under occupation.