Prosecutors charged an Israeli settler, Yinon Levi, on Thursday in the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in the occupied West Bank.
This is for the first time since the — that sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza — that an Israeli was indicted for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank, said Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
“Yinon Eliya Levi (33), from Ma’on, has been charged with allegedly firing toward an area where people were present during a confrontation that developed over earthworks on private land, causing the death of the late Awdah Hathaleen,” Isaid on X.
“The Southern District Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment against him… on charges of reckless manslaughter, trespassing, and willful property damage,” the ministry said.
In the document, state attorneys accused Yinon Levi of reckless manslaughter in the death of Awdah Hathaleen in July 2025. Under Israeli law, reckless manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, NBC News reported.
Levi was also accused of armed trespassing and malicious property damage.
to prosecutors on Thursday, saying he would fight for his innocence in court, according to a letter he shared with The Associated Press. He wrote that prosecutors should not penalise acts of self-defense, accusing them of providing “de facto support for terrorism.”
‘A very clear case’
Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist who took part in the production of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land”, was killed in July 2025 during a settler attack on his village of Umm al-Khair, in the southern West Bank.
Hathaleen was a resident of Masafer Yatta, a string of hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, which have been declared a military zone by Israel. Their efforts to prevent Israeli forces from destroying their homes was the subject of “No Other Land”, which won Best Documentary at the Oscars in March.
Palestinian rights group Al-Haq conducted a forensic investigation of Hathaleen’s killing, using footage in which Levi is seen shooting at a crowd of Palestinians in Umm al-Khair the day he was killed.
B’Tselem had said earlier it obtained the video from the family of Awdah Hathaleen, 31, an activist, English teacher and father of three who was shot and killed on July 28, and who they said had filmed it.
Levi, who is shown firing his gun twice in a 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.
Umm al-Kheir sits in the region of Masafer Yatta, where Palestinian communities have faced frequent settler violence and home demolitions by the military, which has declared parts of the area an army firing zone.
‘First of its kind’ indictment
Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the indictment was the first of its kind for the killing of a Palestinian in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, which marked the beginning of a surge in violence in the West Bank.
“The decision to indict Yinon Levi is the exception that proves the rule,” B’Tselem spokesman Yair Dvir told AFP, accusing Israel of fostering a culture of impunity that “is not a failure of the system — it is a central component”.
Hathaleen’s attorney Eitan Peleg told AFP the indictment “is a very important decision. I hope it will be a precedent in future cases of [Israelis] committing crimes against Palestinians in Palestine.”
“Many Palestinians are killed by settlers, by the army, but this was the first time a full investigation was held and they had no other option but to charge. This was a very clear case,” he added.
The US and EU placed sanctions on Levi in April 2024 for previous violent attacks on Palestinians.
Excluding Israeli-annexed, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among some three million Palestinians.
All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law.
Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, said B’Tselem.
