The Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has reported that Israeli soldiers raided his home in the occupied West Bank.
Basel Adra told the Associated Press that the soldiers asked his wife about his whereabouts and searched her phone while his nine-month-old daughter was home. He added that they also briefly detained his uncle.
Adra said the raid followed an attack by Israeli settlers on his village in Masafer Yatta on Saturday, in which two of his brothers and one cousin were wounded. He accompanied them to hospital, while nine Israeli soldiers stormed his home in his absence.
He said he had been unable to return home since, as soldiers had blockaded the village entrance.
Adra, who has long worked as a journalist and filmmaker documenting settler violence in Masafer Yatta, reported that he and his co-director, Hamdan Ballal, had faced intensified attacks and targeting since they won an Oscar for best documentary.
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In March, Ballal was arrested by Israeli soldiers after he was attacked by a “lynch-mob” of settlers in the village of Susya, south of Hebron. He was released a day later after being “beaten all over his body” by settlers and soldiers, and left “blindfolded and handcuffed” overnight, according to Adra.
Adra described Saturday’s attack as “horrific”.
“Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house,” he said. “The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.”
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In July, activist and English teacher Awdah Hathleen – who was a consultant for the documentary – was killed by an Israeli settler.
The settler accused of killing Hathaleen, Yinon Levi, had previously been sanctioned by former US President Joe Biden’s administration and the European Union for his violent attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Levi has been featured in a number of news outlets documenting the impact of sanctions on Israeli settlers.
The Trump administration lifted the sanctions on Israeli settlers in January.
No Other Land won the best documentary film award at the 97th Academy Awards this year.
The film chronicles the Israeli army’s attempts to expel the residents of Masafer Yatta from their land. It has received international critical acclaim for its documentation of Palestinian life under occupation and resistance to Israeli violence and attempts at displacement.
Various Israeli figures have accused the film and its creators of spreading false narratives, antisemitism and harming Israel’s interests in the world.
Israeli settler attacks across the occupied West Bank have rocketed in the wake of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with settlers destroying agricultural land and infrastructure under the protection of Israeli forces.
Since the start of this year, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks, with over 696 wounded.
