Awdah Hathaleen killing: Israeli settler charged

Israeli prosecutors charged Israeli settler Yinon Eliya Levi on August 6 in the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in the occupied West Bank, Israel's justice ministry said.

The ministry said Levi, 33, from Ma'on, was indicted on charges of reckless manslaughter, trespassing and willful property damage. It said he was accused of firing toward an area where people were present during a confrontation over earthworks on private land, causing Hathaleen's death.

Hathaleen, who took part in the production of the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land", was killed in July 2025 in Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem said the indictment was the first of its kind for the killing of a Palestinian in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023. B'Tselem spokesman Yair Dvir called the decision an exception and accused Israel of fostering impunity.

Hathaleen's attorney Eitan Peleg called the indictment an important decision and said he hoped it would set a precedent in future cases involving Israelis accused of crimes against Palestinians.

Palestinian rights group Al-Haq said it carried out a forensic investigation using footage that it said showed Levi shooting at a crowd of Palestinians in Umm al-Khair on the day Hathaleen was killed.

The United States and the European Union placed sanctions on Levi in April 2024 for previous violent attacks on Palestinians.

Masafer Yatta communities face frequent settler violence and home demolitions by the military, which has declared parts of the area an army firing zone. About 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, excluding Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, among about three million Palestinians. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.