Israel’s prosecutors said Monday they plan to charge a settler in the July killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, a confrontation that was filmed and drew international attention. The announcement, made in a statement from the State Attorney General’s office, would open a rare prosecution of violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to the report.
Prosecutors said the decision followed the killing during a confrontation that was caught on video from multiple angles. The family and rights groups have pointed to the footage as central to determining what happened in the standoff.
The killing drew heightened attention because Hathaleen was involved in the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” which chronicled Palestinian villagers’ fight to remain on their land. The report said the confrontation between Palestinians and Levi—an Israeli settler who has faced international sanctions—was captured on video from multiple vantage points, increasing scrutiny of the shooting.
A lawyer for Hathaleen’s family, Eitan Peleg, said the prosecutors’ office had told them it planned to indict Levi for reckless homicide, a charge that would trigger a process allowing the defendant to contest before formal filing. “Enforcement of the law in cases like this involving Palestinians in the West Bank is very rare, so this is unique,” Peleg told the Associated Press on Monday, according to the report. The family’s satisfaction was tempered by the belief that the evidence pointed to more than recklessness.
Hathaleen’s brother, Khalil Hathaleen, said the planned charge was insufficient. “It was an intentional killing in broad daylight, with prior intent and premeditation,” he said. Levi was detained before being released to house arrest, and that condition was later lifted, the report said.
Levi’s legal position has differed from the family’s. Levi’s attorney, Avichai Hajbi, declined to comment Monday on the coming indictment, saying he had not received it. After the shooting, Hajbi told the Associated Press that Levi acted in self-defense, the report said. Levi did not answer phone calls Monday, the report added.
The report described what different videos appeared to show during the confrontation. In one video that family members said was taken by Hathaleen himself, Levi was shown firing toward the person holding the camera. Another video showed Levi firing two shots without showing where the bullets struck, while the shooting’s timing was visible even though the footage did not show where bullets hit, the report said.
Parts of the confrontation were previously released by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, which the report said showed Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. Additional footage obtained by the AP last year showed Levi waving a pistol during the standoff in Umm al-Khair after an excavator rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property, the report said. A cousin, Alaa Hathaleen, told the AP at the time that he approached Levi to say the group was unarmed and to stop the bulldozing.
The case also stands out procedurally because Levi was previously released from custody by an Israeli judge about six months earlier. The judge cited a lack of evidence that Levi fired the shots that killed Hathaleen, the report said. Monday’s development, the report said, would reverse the earlier evidence assessment enough to move toward indictment, though the charge was not specified in the State Attorney General’s statement.
The announcement came as violence and friction continued across the West Bank. Palestinian activists and film personnel said settler attacks intensified on the village depicted in “No Other Land” after it won the Oscar. Hamdan Ballal, one of the film’s directors, said his family home in Umm al-Khair was attacked again Sunday, and he said four relatives were arrested during that confrontation, adding that neither the army nor police responded to requests for comment.
Alongside the criminal case, Israel said Sunday it would resume a land registration process across the West Bank to require anyone claiming land to submit documents proving ownership. Rights groups said the process could strip Palestinians of land they have lived on and farmed for generations and transfer it to Israeli state control. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the steps were aimed at countering Palestinian Authority land registration efforts in areas where Israel maintains civil and military control, the report said.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called the move a “flagrant violation” of international law, warning it would escalate tensions in the Palestinian territories and across the region. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said the measures were part of Israel’s effort to impose a “new legal and administrative reality” that undermines prospects for peace and stability, according to the report. The report also said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the decision as destabilizing and unlawful according to the International Court of Justice, citing a statement from his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric.