On a tense Saturday in September 2025, the small West Bank village of At-Tuwani became the latest flashpoint in the escalating conflict between Israeli settlers, Palestinian residents, and Israeli security forces. Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker and journalist renowned for chronicling the daily realities of life under occupation, found himself and his family at the center of a harrowing episode that has drawn international attention and renewed debate over the future of the region.
According to CNN, the ordeal began when a group of Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost of Havat Maon entered Adra's olive grove, which lies near his home in At-Tuwani. Adra, accompanied by two of his brothers, a cousin, and a foreign activist, attempted to intervene. The encounter quickly turned violent. "The police and army arrived as the settlers were attacking us. They did not stop them. One of the settlers chased one of the solidarity activists, and he beat her to the ground. The soldiers watched and did nothing," Adra recounted to CNN. The violence left one of Adra's brothers hospitalized after being knocked down by a settler riding a quad bike.
As the injured were rushed to the hospital, the situation in the village deteriorated further. While Adra was away with his wounded relatives, Israeli soldiers stormed his home. The Associated Press reported that nine soldiers entered, questioned Adra's wife, Suha, searched her phone, and briefly detained one of Adra's uncles—all while the couple's nine-month-old daughter was inside. The soldiers also blocked the road to the village, preventing an ambulance from reaching those in need, according to Adra's account.
The Israeli military, as cited by the Australian Associated Press, stated that their presence in the village was in response to rock-throwing incidents by Palestinians that allegedly injured two Israeli civilians. Soldiers were still in the area as of Saturday night, questioning residents and conducting searches. Adra, fearing detention, was unable to return home, telling reporters he had "no way of returning home to check on his family, because soldiers were blocking the entrance to the village and he was scared of being detained." The Red Crescent confirmed that three Palestinians were wounded during the settler attack, with two requiring hospitalization.
Adra's experience is not unique among those who document or resist the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In March 2025, Hamdan Ballal, Adra's co-director on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was detained by Israeli forces after settlers attacked him. "Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house," Adra told the AP. "The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared." His Israeli co-director, Yuval Abraham, voiced his own fears: "What happened today in his village, we’ve seen this dynamic again and again, where the Israeli settlers brutally attack a Palestinian village and later on the army comes, and attacks the Palestinians."
The documentary No Other Land, which Adra co-directed with Ballal, Abraham, and Rachel Szor, has brought global attention to the plight of residents in Masafer Yatta—a cluster of Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank. The film, which began its run of international awards at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024 before winning the Oscar for best documentary in 2025, depicts the struggle of these communities to resist Israeli military demolition orders and forced expulsions. The filmmakers' work has not come without risk. Miami Beach, for example, proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary, highlighting the controversy it has generated both in Israel and abroad.
The violence in At-Tuwani is emblematic of a broader trend. Activist groups Peace Now and Kerem Navot, in a report verified by CNN through satellite analysis, documented that settlers built 49 new illegal outposts for grazing between October 7, 2023 and December 2024—a 50% increase over the previous period. These outposts, illegal under both Israeli and international law, are often established by the most radical elements of the settler movement. Since the start of the Israeli military offensive against Gaza in October 2023, violent settler attacks in the West Bank—including in Masafer Yatta—have surged. The Red Crescent and other humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned of the growing danger to Palestinian civilians.
The human toll of these confrontations is stark. On July 28, 2025, Odeh Hadalin, an activist and collaborator on No Other Land, was shot and killed by a settler in Masafer Yatta. The perpetrator, Yinon Levi, had previously been sanctioned by both the European Union and the United States for his repeated violent attacks against Palestinians. Despite dozens of complaints filed by Palestinian residents—including Adra himself—against settler encroachment and violence, effective police action remains rare. "We have filed dozens of complaints against the same settlers for grazing their sheep among our olive trees; we call the police, but they do nothing," Adra lamented to CNN.
The roots of the conflict in Masafer Yatta and the broader West Bank stretch back decades. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, during the 1967 Mideast war. Today, more than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in over 100 settlements across the West Bank, while approximately three million Palestinians reside under what many describe as open-ended Israeli military rule. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority administers population centers, but Israeli forces retain ultimate control over most aspects of daily life, especially in areas like Masafer Yatta that have been designated as military training zones since the 1980s. Residents live under the constant threat of demolition, displacement, and—increasingly—violence from both settlers and soldiers.
Since October 2023, the conflict has only intensified. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank during wide-scale Israeli military operations, while settler attacks on Palestinian villages have become more frequent and more brazen. There has also been a rise in Palestinian attacks on Israelis, fueling a cycle of violence that shows little sign of abating. The international community remains divided on how to respond, with some calling for greater pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion and protect Palestinian civilians, while others emphasize Israel's security concerns and the need to address Palestinian violence.
For Adra, the events of September 13 were "horrific," but they are also part of a familiar, exhausting pattern. As he and his fellow filmmakers continue to document the struggle of their communities, their work has become both a source of hope and a target for those who would silence dissent. The story of At-Tuwani, like that of so many villages in the West Bank, is far from over. But through the lens of No Other Land and the testimony of those on the ground, the world is being asked to bear witness—and, perhaps, to reckon with uncomfortable truths.