Palestinian activist killed by settler filmed his shooting, footage shows
Hathaleen, who worked on the filming of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which examined settler violence against the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was killed by Yinon Levi, a settler who was already under sanctions in the UK and EU for violent acts against Palestinians.
The footage – released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem – appears to offer clear evidence of Levi's 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.
Levi was arrested over the killing but quickly released by a court after a ruling that the evidence he had fired at Hathaleen had 'weakened'.
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's direction. Hathaleen is then heard groaning and falling to the ground.
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.
The footage, filmed from a distance away, shows Levi waving a gun and scuffling with residents as they attempt to block the earth mover.
Levi can then be seen taking several steps to his right before raising his gun, aiming it in Hathaleen's direction, and firing. The footage sharply contradicts claims by Levi's lawyer, Avichai Hajbi, that he had been 'forced to fire his weapon into the air' because he felt his life was in danger.
Hathaleen's footage is backed up by witness evidence provided to B'Tselem, 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.
'The settler Yinon Levi arrived,' Alaa Hathaleen told B'Tselem. 'The 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.
'Suddenly, 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.
'I heard shouts: 'Awdah! Awdah!' I turned around and found my cousin Awdah lying in the public garden of Umm al-Khair's 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.'
Levi was sanctioned by the UK in 2024, along with others, because he 'used physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities'.
Levi's 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.
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