Palestinian filmmaker describes attack by Israeli settlers that left him bloody and bruised

As stone-throwing Israeli settlers and armed soldiers approached his home, Hamdan Ballal could only think about his wife and three young kids inside.

“I told myself if they will attack me, if they kill me, I will protect my family,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday following a night in military detention.

Three weeks after winning the Oscar for best documentary, the Palestinian director was again pointing his camera at settlers who were attacking his village in the West Bank on Monday night. Soldiers aimed their guns at him and other residents.

“I can’t do anything when someone is threatening your life with their gun. I just keep filming them and that’s it,” he said, describing how one settler walked toward his front door flanked by armed Israelis in uniform.

The settler hit Ballal in the head, knocking him to the ground, and began kicking his head like “it was a football.” One of the soldiers used the butt of his gun to hit Ballal’s leg, he says.

Bloodied and blindfolded, witnesses filmed Ballal being detained by soldiers and driven away in a military vehicle amid the gathering dusk. He says he was kept handcuffed and blindfolded underneath an air conditioner overnight, and soldiers would periodically hit, kick and beat him with sticks. He has no idea where he was held.

Asked if he felt specifically targeted, he said: “When they say ‘Oscar,’ you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”