An Israeli settler sanctioned by the Biden administration has been arrested in the killing of a well-known Palestinian activist in the West Bank.
Local outlets and The New York Times reported Tuesday that police named Yinon Levi as the suspect in the shooting of Awdah Hathaleen, a journalist from the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair whose work was featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
Levi, whose U.S. sanctions were lifted by President Donald Trump in January, was detained and released on house arrest, police said. No formal charges have been brought against him yet, The Guardian reported.
His confrontation Monday with Palestinians, set off by Levi and a colleague bulldozing a path through the the fields of Umm al-Khair to expand the Israeli settlement of Carmel, was captured on video and showed him firing multiple times. In statements reported by the Times, Levi’s lawyer said his client was shooting into the air, acting in self-defense in response to Palestinians hurling stones at him.
Hathaleen was not involved in the dispute and was standing at a community center about 150 feet away when he was hit by the stray bullet, his cousin and another activist told the Times.
