TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — New video footage appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist was killed as an Israeli settler fired toward him during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month.
The video released Sunday by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, shows Israeli settler Yinon Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. The footage cuts but the camera keeps rolling as the person moans in pain.
B’Tselem says it obtained the video from the family of Awdah Hathaleen, 31, an activist, English teacher and father of three who was shot dead on July 28, and who they said had filmed it. Levi, who was shown firing his gun twice in video shot by another witness and obtained by The Associated Press, was briefly detained and then released from house arrest by an Israeli court, which cited lack of evidence.
The shooting occurred in Umm al-Khair, a village that has long weathered settler violence in an area profiled in the Oscar-winning film “No Other Land.” Settler attacks on Palestinians have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as have attacks by Palestinian militants.
“Awdah’s killing is another horrific example of how Palestinians, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, are currently living without any sort of protection, fully exposed to Israeli violence, while Israeli soldiers or settlers can kill them in broad daylight and enjoy full impunity while the world watches,” said Sarit Michaeli, the international outreach director for B’Tselem.
Demonstrators protest the murder of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen by an Israeli settler on Aug. 3, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The 31-year-old English teacher was killed on July 28 when Yinon Levi opened fire during a confrontation in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir, in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank.
Tamir Kalifa via Getty Images
Both videos appear to show the same confrontation between Levi and a group of Palestinians. The earlier video showed him firing two shots from a pistol but did not show where the bullets struck. Several witnesses told the AP they saw Levi shoot Hathaleen.
Avichai Hajbi, a lawyer representing Levi, told the AP that Levi acted in self-defense — without specifying what his actions were. Hajbi pointed to a court’s decision earlier this month that released Levi from house arrest, citing insufficient evidence. The judge said Levi did not pose a danger justifying continued house arrest, but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month.
The Israeli police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether they’d seen the videos.
B’Tselem said Levi was with a crew that brought an excavator from a nearby settlement into Umm al-Khair. Residents, fearing it would cut the village’s main water line, gathered on a dirt road to try and block its path, and at least one individual threw a stone at the vehicle’s front window.