Palestinian director missing after attack, what happened?

Palestinian film director and Academy Award-winner Hamdan Ballal went missing after he was violently attacked in the Palestinian village of Susya, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Monday night.

Israeli settlers assaulted Ballal physically in “ No Other Land ” in West Bank. Jewish activists on the scene said after the attack, the Israeli military then detained him.

The activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence, dozens of settlers attacked Susiya in Masafer Yatta area, destroying property.

His colleague labelled the assault as a “lynch mob”.

Susya, the site of an Israeli settlement, is illegal under international law.

Something most US administrations have agreed violates Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.

His co-director and fellow Oscar winner of the documentary No Other Land, Yuval Abraham, said on X that after Israeli soldiers seized him from the ambulance that arrived to treat him, Ballal’s whereabouts are now unknown.

The Center for Jewish Nonviolence said in a statement released on Monday that the five Jewish-American activists at the scene “are joining in a three-month long coresistance project” in Masafer Yatta, a short drive southeast of Susiya.

Masafer Yatta is the village at the heart of No Other Land.

The statement also read when Susiya village came under attack, the activists “responded to calls to come and support the village.

When the activists returned to their car to seek shelter, the attackers surrounded the car, cut its tyres, and damaged the windows with stones.

The film was being produced on the story of Basel Adra, the Palestinian resident of Masafer Yatta. Basel said he was present during the incident with Hamdan’s seven-year-old son Karam.

Israel soldiers abducted Hamdan, injured and bleeding. Since then, he “is still missing”, added Basel.