Israel indicts settler in rare charge over Palestinian activist’s killing

Israeli prosecutors have charged a settler with reckless manslaughter over the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in the occupied West Bank, in the first such indictment of an Israeli in more than seven years.

The indictment against Yinon Levi, filed in an Israeli district court on Thursday, also includes charges of armed trespassing and malicious property damage.

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said an Israeli civilian was last indicted over the killing of a Palestinian in the West Bank in 2019.

Hathaleen, a 31-year-old teacher and father of three, was killed in July 2025 when settlers brought excavators into the village of Umm al-Khair to level land for a new illegal outpost, sparking a confrontation with residents.

Video, including footage reportedly filmed by Hathaleen himself, showed Levi firing shots towards the crowd.

A separate investigation by Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, published on the killing’s first anniversary, reconstructed the shooting from video, testimony and geospatial analysis. It matched the fatal wound to Levi’s handgun and found none of the Palestinians present were armed, undercutting his self-defence claim.

The group said Levi was also filmed alongside Israeli forces identifying Palestinians for arrest, while an ambulance trying to reach Hathaleen was blocked as Israeli soldiers and police looked on.

Hathaleen had worked on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land and regularly hosted foreign activists in his home.

Levi’s lawyer called the charges mistaken and said the defence would contest them in court. Levi was among settlers sanctioned by the United Kingdom and European Union over violence against Palestinians; Washington lifted similar United States sanctions after Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 for a second term as US president.

Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem called the indictment “the exception that proves the rule”, saying Israel’s impunity for settlers and soldiers is deliberate policy, not systemic failure.

It says at least 1,100 Palestinians, including 240 children, have been killed in the West Bank by settlers and soldiers since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

The indictment comes amid a surge in West Bank settler violence, with attacks now averaging 190 a month in 2026, driven by organised networks like the Hilltop Youth and armed settler “guard teams”.