Troops injured relatives and searched for Adra in the occupied West Bank village of Al-Tuwani, amid escalating settler violence.

RELATED:

Israeli Chess Team Quits Spanish Tournament After Flag Ban Over Gaza War

The Israeli army raided and occupied the home of Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra on Saturday in Al-Tuwani, a village in the southern occupied West Bank, injuring family members during the operation. Adra, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for the documentary No Other Land, remains in hiding and unable to return home for fear of arrest.

According to Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham, extremist settlers attacked Al-Tuwani before the military entered Adra’s house. He said some of Adra’s relatives were beaten. “I’m very scared for Basel right now. Because what happens again and again is that the settlers attack the Palestinian villages, and then the soldiers come and attack the Palestinians,” Abraham told reporters. The Red Crescent confirmed treating three Palestinians injured in the assault, two of whom were transferred to hospital.

Soldiers questioned Adra’s wife, Suha, about his whereabouts, checked her phone, and briefly detained one of his uncles while the couple’s nine-month-old daughter was present. Adra later said he could not return to his village because soldiers had blocked the entrance.

Adra has spent his career documenting violence by settlers and the Israeli military in Masafer Yatta, the cluster of villages where he was born. Since No Other Land received the Oscar for Best Documentary, he and his co-directors have reported intensified harassment. In March, fellow Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal was attacked, and on July 28 activist Odeh Hadalin, who collaborated on the film, was shot dead by a settler in Masafer Yatta.

The assailant, Yinon Levi, had already been sanctioned by the European Union and the United States in 2024 for repeated violent assaults on Palestinians.

No Other Land, co-directed by Adra, Ballal, Abraham, and Rachel Szor, chronicles five years (2019–2023) of demolitions and expulsions in Masafer Yatta, where Israeli forces destroyed homes, schools, wells, and roads. The film won multiple international awards, beginning at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, but also sparked anger in Israel and a surge in settler attacks.

Since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began in October 2023, settler violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated sharply, with Masafer Yatta among the worst affected areas. The Israeli military has not commented on the raid or the search for Adra.

IN THIS ARTICLE