Israeli Army Arrests Palestinian Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal After Settlers Attack His Susiya Home

Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was arrested by the Israeli army after relatives said Israeli settlers attacked his house in Susiya, in southern West Bank, and soldiers entered the ambulance he had called and arrested him while he was injured and bleeding.

“Photo: Logo of the Israeli water company Mekorot”

France Palestine Solidarité

Yuval Abraham, one of the film's two Israeli co-directors, said on X that Ballal was released this Tuesday, the day after his arrest by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank.

France Palestine Solidarité

Radio France reported that in Susiya, at least around twenty masked young men armed with stones, knives and sticks arrived near the village school shortly after 6 p.m., destroyed water tanks, shattered car windows and attacked Ballal, while Palestinians threw stones in return.

The police confirm there were four arrests, described the detainees as "terrorists" and said he was behind bars, suspected of throwing stones at the security forces, before he was released.

France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it condemned "the violence carried out by extremist settlers against the Palestinian population" and "in particular the attack against filmmaker Hamdan Ballal," while the Quai d'Orsay recalled France's condemnation of "colonization, contrary to international law".

For 100 days, Palestinians of the occupied town of Idna in the West Bank have been living without running water after Mekorot's April decision reduced the daily water supply to the Hebron Governorate from 32,000 cubic meters to 26,000, leading to a complete shutdown of Mekorot's water pipeline to Idna.

The France Palestine Solidarité report said residents gathered at the town hall on Monday to discuss the crisis, and the mayor explained Mekorot's justification that some residents illegally stole water.

Radio France

Rami Nofal, a local journalist and Idna resident, told Mondoweiss that "Every summer, we experience water outages" and that the argument about theft was "not a justification for leaving 40,000 people without water for three months."

On June 3, 2026, WAFA Agency reported that an Israeli colonist seized water tanks from a Palestinian home in the town of Atara, north of Ramallah, after removing them from the rooftop a bulldozer.

WAFA said the attack was part of ongoing violations by colonists against Palestinian residents and their property in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and that "Approximately 1 million Israeli colonists are living in colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem".

France Palestine Solidarité said Mekorot was founded in the 1930s under the British Mandate and, after 1967, its activities included the West Bank and Gaza, with the company entrusted with building a national network of pipelines carrying water around the West Bank and across Israeli territory dating to 1948.

“RAMALLAH, June 3, 2026 (WAFA) – An Israeli colonist seized water tanks from a Palestinian home in the town of Atara, north of Ramallah, on Wednesday, after removing them from the rooftop a bulldozer”

WAFA Agency

The report said that since the 1967 occupation, Mekorot has drilled more wells in the West Bank, ending up controlling about 25 wells, which it uses to supply water to Israeli settlements and sell water to many Palestinian municipalities, including Idna.

Ihab Sweiti of the Palestinian Water Authority told Mondoweiss that natural water sources in Palestine fall into four natural aquifers, and he said the east and Jordan Valley aquifers are primarily in the West Bank while the coastal aquifer is the main water source for Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, WAFA said colonists’ violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, and attacks on vulnerable homes, and that it is "rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities."

Radio France reported that Labour Minister Tahmina Akhter said the government would launch an immediate investigation and that "We will hold the owners fully accountable," while France's foreign ministry demanded Israeli authorities "must sanction those responsible" and "protect Palestinian civilians."