Category: World news

(LONDON) –The success of a nascent potential agreement between Ukraine and Russia to pause naval and energy infrastructure attacks will depend on Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, warning that Kyiv has no trust for Russian President Vladimir Putin after more than three years of full-scale war.

“Now, results are needed from Russia,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Tuesday. “We do not trust them. And frankly — the world doesn’t trust Russia. And they must prove that they are truly ready to end the war — ready to stop lying to the world, to President [Donald] Trump and to America.”

“How Russia behaves in the coming days will reveal a lot — if not everything,” he said.

“If there are air raid alerts again, if there is renewed military activity in the Black Sea, if Russian manipulations and threats continue — then new measures will need to be taken, specifically against Moscow,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia and Ukraine “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” according to White House readouts, published Tuesday after three days of meetings with representatives from Kyiv and Moscow in Saudi Arabia.

The nations also agreed to “develop measures to implement the agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine,” the White House said. Trump said, “We are making a lot of progress.”

Drone strikes continued through Tuesday night into Wednesday despite the apparent progress on a partial ceasefire agreement.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 117 drones into the country overnight, of which 56 were shot down and 48 lost in flight. “Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Cherkasy regions were affected by the Russian attack,” the air force wrote on Telegram.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its forces downed nine Ukrainian drones, including two over the Black Sea. In the western Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a drone attack wounded one person and broke the windows of several buildings.

On Wednesday morning, Zelenskyy said in a statement posted on Telegram that “there were 117 more pieces of evidence in our sky that Russia is dragging out this war — 117 strike drones.” He added, “To launch such large-scale strikes after ceasefire negotiations is to show everyone in the world with all the obviousness that Moscow is not going to make a real peace.”

“Strong steps from the world and clear pressure on Russia are needed,” Zelenskyy continued. “More pressure, more sanctions from the U.S., so that the Russian strikes stop.”

Questions remain as to the nuances and extent of the agreements. Russia and Ukraine both released their own readouts emphasizing different elements of what was purportedly agreed with the U.S.

Russia for example, said the U.S. agreed to “help restore access to the world market for Russian exports of agricultural products and fertilizers,” plus to reduce the cost of shipping insurance and expand access to ports and payment systems. Such steps will require the lifting of some sanctions on Russian agricultural and food companies, the Kremlin said.

That point was not reflected in the Ukrainian readout. Kyiv’s announcement also said the U.S. would help with prisoner of war exchanges, the release of civilian detainees and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children — a topic not mentioned in the Russian readout.

After Putin spoke with Trump last week, the White House said a proposed 30-day partial ceasefire would pause attacks on “energy and infrastructure.” The Kremlin said the agreement referred to “energy infrastructure.” Tuesday’s White House statement reverted to the wording used by Russia.

Russia said the proposed 30-day pause in attacks on energy infrastructure began on March 18, and on Tuesday published a list of facilities subject to the pause in strikes. Moscow said either side could opt out of the freeze in the event of violations by the other. All nuclear and other power plants, oil and gas depots, pipelines and storage facilities, plus hydroelectric dams were among the facilities included.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated the same claims Wednesday to reporters.

“As for whether it means anything or not, I can only repeat what I said both the day before yesterday and yesterday: Putin’s order on the moratorium [on strikes on energy facilities] is in force and is being implemented by our armed forces,” Peskov said.

Both sides have accused the other of continuing to attack energy and other critical infrastructure targets throughout the ceasefire negotiations. Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, said in a post on X on Tuesday that Russia has hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure eight times since March 18.

“I think there will be a million questions and details,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday, shortly after the news on the negotiations was announced.

Later, in his evening video address, Zelenskyy said the onus for the success of the partial ceasefire is on Moscow.

“Diplomacy must work,” he added. “And from the Ukrainian side, we are doing everything to make that happen. I thank everyone who is helping. I am grateful to the United States for the constructive and effective work of our teams.”

ABC News’ Patrick Reevell, Anna Sergeeva and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(PABRADĖ, Lithuania) — Search and recovery efforts are underway for four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during a scheduled training exercise near Pabradė, Lithuania, according to the Army and the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius.

The soldiers, who the Army said are all based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, were reported missing on Tuesday, the Lithuanian Armed Forces said.

The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the soldiers were operating at the time has been found submerged in water in a training area, the Army said on Wednesday.

“The 3rd Inf. Div. is continuing to keep families of the Soldiers informed on the status of search efforts,” the Army said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LONDON) — Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of northern Gaza on Tuesday in a rare protest against Hamas, with marchers calling for the terror group to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel and give up control of the strip to end the war.

Videos from the northern city of Beit Lahiya — which has been devastated by a heavy Israeli bombardment and intense fighting by between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces over the past 17 months — showed hundreds gathered on the streets, some chanting anti-Hamas slogans. Shouts of “Hamas out” could be heard in videos posted to social media.

The gathering followed an appeal for a demonstration spread on social media channels. ABC News is unable to verify its origin or the identity of the original poster.

Some marchers held signs displaying demands, including “Enough displacement and homelessness,” “Stop the war” and “We refuse to die,” as seen in videos circulating on social media.

Videos filmed by a local journalist and verified by ABC News showed Gazans chanting, “We want to live, we want to live,” in Arabic as a man addressed the assembled crowd.

“We are here today to deliver a message to the entire nation,” he said. “We are a peaceful people, a peaceful people, a peaceful people. We want to live. This is the least of life’s demands.”

“We want to live,” he continued. “Deliver it to the entire nation and the leadership. We want to live. People don’t have money to move — meaning to move their things when evacuating — there is no empty space in Gaza. Where will we go?”

The Associated Press reported that some videos appeared to show Hamas members dispersing the crowd.

A call across the Gaza Strip for more protests circulated on social media on Wednesday. In a video statement on Wednesday, speaking in Hebrew, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz addressed the protests.

“The IDF will soon operate forcefully in additional areas in Gaza and you will be required to evacuate and lose more and more territory,” Katz said in the statement directed at residents of Gaza. “The plans are already prepared and approved. Learn from the residents of Beit Lahia: Demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages — this is the only way to stop the war.”

Tuesday’s protests came amid Israel’s renewed offensive on the devastated strip, which began last week and ended a two-month ceasefire that began in January.

Israel is demanding the immediate release of all remaining hostages — consisting of 59 people, 24 of whom are still believed to be alive — taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campaign would resume with “full force,” adding that further “negotiations will only be done under fire.” Israel intends to fully dismantle Hamas and remove it from power in Gaza, Netanyahu has said.

As of Tuesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 792 people had been killed and 1,663 others injured since the resumption of Israeli military action last week.

The latest casualties bring the total death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, to 50,144, with another 113,704 wounded, the ministry said.

Around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel during the Hamas attack, with 251 people taken back into Gaza as captives, according to the Israeli government.

ABC News’ Guy Davies contributed to this report.

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(PABRADĖ, Lithuania) — Search and recovery efforts are underway for four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during scheduled tactical training near Pabradė, Lithuania, the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius said.

They were reported missing on Tuesday, the Lithuanian Armed Forces said.

The Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and Lithuanian law enforcement are among those involved in the search, the U.S. Embassy said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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Three people were killed when a large avalanche swept away a group of skiers in Canada, officials said.

The avalanche struck just before 1 p.m. on Monday when two groups of skiers had just finished skiing and were waiting in a staging area below the tree line of Clute Creek water shed in an alpine area on the east side of Kootenay Lake in the British Columbia backcountry, according to a statement from the Kaslo Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“A transport helicopter was nearing the group when the pilot observed an avalanche and sounded the siren,” officials said. “One group of skiers was able to run out of harm’s way, while the other group of four was swept away into the tree line.”

Efforts to recover the men were immediately initiated but when officials located them, they found three of them deceased.

They were identified as “a 44-year-old man from Whistler BC, a 45-year-old man from Idaho USA and the 53-year-old guide from Kaslo BC.”

The fourth man, a 40-year-old from Nelson, British Columbia, was critically injured.

Avalanche Canada said the Kootenays have a high danger rating at all elevations and that rising temperatures can create avalanche conditions.

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(GAZA CITY) — The Israeli government approved the establishment of an agency to facilitate the “voluntary” removal of residents from Gaza, drawing condemnation from across the region.

The agency, proposed by the Israeli Defense Ministry, was approved last weekend, but has not been formally established.

“We are working by all means to implement the vision of the U.S. president, and we will allow any Gaza resident who wishes to voluntarily move to a third country to do so,” Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

President Donald Trump began to publicly push in February for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza — a move that some, including the United Nations and U.S. allies like France and Germany, have said would be a violation of international law.

Despite Trump threatening to pull aid from Egypt and Jordan if they do not agree to take in the Palestinians living in Gaza, both countries remained steadfast in their opposition of the proposal.

The Arab Summit approved a draft proposal for a Gaza reconstruction plan that would not displace the Palestinians living in Gaza earlier this month. Under the proposal, Gaza would be governed by a committee of independent professionals and technocrats for six months until the Palestinian Authority resumes control over the enclave.

Egypt “strongly condemned” the establishment of an agency “tasked with the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip” and the “recognition of 13 new settlements in West Bank,” in a statement Monday.

“Egypt affirms the denial the bases of the so-called ‘voluntary displacement’ that Israel claims it is targeting through this agency, stressing that leaving while under fire from strikes and war and the blockade preventing humanitarian aid and usage of starvation as a weapon is considered forced displacement, a crime and violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement in Arabic.

Saudi Arabia also condemned the move. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X Monday: “The Kingdom reiterates its firm rejection of Israel’s continuous violations of international law and international humanitarian law.”

“The Foreign Ministry expresses Saudi Arabia’s condemnation of the Israeli occupation authorities’ announcement on the establishment of an agency that aims to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, as well as the approval of the separation of 13 illegal settlement neighborhoods in the West Bank in preparation for legitimizing them as colonial settlements,” the Saudi Arabian ministry added.

The proposal for the new Israeli agency comes days after the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza surpassed 50,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. At least 792 people were killed and 1,663 others were injured in Israeli strikes last week alone, after the ceasefire ended between Israel and Hamas, the ministry said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday is set to visit the prison in El Salvador that took in migrants at the center of the deportation battle playing out in U.S. courts.

On Wednesday, Noem will visit the Terrorist Confinement Center with the Salvadorian minister of justice, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, and will later meet with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.

“This week, I’m headed down to El Salvador,” Noem said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday. “I’ll be in the prison where we sent [Tren De Aragua] gang members. I’ll be meeting with the president and also Colombia and Mexico and talking about building these relationships so we can continue to get people out of this country that don’t belong here and take them home.”

She said the president talked to her about “sending the message worldwide” that people shouldn’t illegally be entering the United States.

The DHS has rolled out a $200 million advertising campaign to tell people who are thinking about coming to the U.S. illegally not to come and to urge those who are in the U.S. without legal status to leave.

“They shouldn’t be coming here illegally,” Noem said. “So we are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking about coming to America illegally, don’t do it — you are not welcome. We have a legal process to become a United States citizen, and there are consequences if you come here illegally.”

The administration allegedly sent members of the Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang to the infamous prison — even though a federal judge ordered officials not to do so.

“America has changed because we are putting Americans first,” Noem concluded during the meeting on Monday.

Noem will also meet with leaders from Colombia and with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later in the week.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message for criminal aliens considering entering America illegally: don’t even think about it. If you come to our country and break our laws, we will hunt you down, and lock you up,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This trip underscores the importance of our partner countries to help remove violent criminal illegal aliens from the United States.”

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(LONDON) — Increasingly squeezed by allies and enemies alike, Ukraine’s armed forces are still setting records in their stubborn defense against Russia’s 3-year-old invasion, which — if President Donald Trump’s peace talks bear fruit — may soon see a partial ceasefire.

Month after month, Ukraine has increased the size and scope of its drone assaults within Russia. The high watermark this month came on March 10 as Kyiv launched at least 343 drones into Russia — according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow — representing Kyiv’s largest ever such attack. More than 90 drones were shot down over Moscow, the capital’s mayor describing the assault as “massive.”

The timing was pointed, coming hours before American and Ukrainian officials gathered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for ceasefire talks.

While straining to prove to the White House they were ready to discuss peace with Moscow, the Ukrainians were also exhibiting their ever-evolving capability to wage war deep inside Russia.

“We keep developing a lot of different types of long-range deep strikes,” Yehor Cherniv — a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the chairman of his country’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly — told ABC News.

“Our capacity is growing to destroy the capacity of Russia to continue this war,” he added.

Ukraine’s strikes against Russian critical infrastructure, energy facilities, military-industrial targets and military bases have mirrored Moscow’s own long-range campaign against Ukraine. Cross-border barrages in both directions have grown in size and complexity throughout the full-scale war.

Ukrainian short-range drones are harrying Russian forces on the devastated battlefields while long-range strike craft hit targets closer to home. Kyiv this month even claimed the first successful use of its domestically produced Neptune cruise missile, with a range of 600 miles.

Since the opening of U.S.-Russian talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 18, Russia’s Defense Ministry claims to have shot down a total of 1,879 long-range Ukrainian drones — an average of more than 53 each day. On four occasions, the ministry reported intercepting more than 100 drones over a 24-hour period.

“Ukraine is pulling every single lever that it can, as hard as it can, to get it the kind of lethal strike capability that it needs for both of those campaigns,” Nick Reynolds, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, told ABC News.

Three years of Russia’s full-scale war have supercharged drone innovation in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s armed forces and intelligence services have lauded what they call their “drone sanctions” — a tongue-in-cheek reference to drone attacks on Russian fossil fuel, military industrial and other infrastructure targets far beyond the front.

“Our Ukrainian production of drones and their continuous modernization are a key part of our system of deterrence against Russia, which is crucial for ensuring Ukraine’s security in the long term,” Zelenskyy said in a recent Telegram post.

Ukrainian drones have hit targets more than 700 miles inside Russia, have regularly forced the temporary closures of major Russian airports and have bombarded the power centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. At sea, Ukraine’s naval drones have confined Russia’s fleet to the eastern portion of the Black Sea and made its bases in Crimea untenable.

It is no longer unusual for more than 100 attack drones to cross into Russian territory in the course of one night. Meanwhile, Kyiv is pushing to replace its relatively low-tech propeller-driven unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, with more jet-powered craft — potentially extending range, payload and survivability. “The number of rocket drones production will grow just like our long-range strike drones production did,” Zelenskyy said last summer.

Kyiv’s strikes have particularly disrupted Russia’s lucrative oil refining and export industry, prompting concerns abroad — including in the U.S. — that the Ukrainian campaign is driving up oil prices globally.

Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank told ABC News that Ukraine’s evolving long-range strike industry represents a “strategic advantage,” especially if Kyiv is able to protect its industrial sites from Russian strikes and stockpile weapons for future use.

“Ukraine has damaged Russian oil refining facilities hard since 2024 and destroyed several key storage bases of the artillery shells,” Pavel Luzin, a Russian political analyst at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, told ABC News. “So, the Russians are highly concerned about this.”

“The amount of financial loss and material damage is huge,” Borsari added.

Drones of all ranges are expected to serve a key role in Ukraine’s future deterrence of repeat Russian aggression. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, for example, said Kyiv is planning a 6- to 9-mile drone “kill zone” to buffer any future post-war frontier with Russia, “making enemy advances impossible.”

Ivan Stupak, a former officer in the Security Service of Ukraine, told ABC News that Ukraine’s drone threat could also prove an important lever in ongoing negotiations with both Moscow and Washington, neither of which want continued — or expanded — drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure and other sensitive targets.

The weapons could also be vital to future deterrence of repeat Russian aggression, Stupak said, as Ukraine pursues a “hedgehog” strategy by which the country would make itself too “prickly” for Moscow to attempt to swallow again.

Ukraine’s success has not gone unnoticed by its foreign partners. Kyiv appears to be carving out a potentially lucrative niche in providing long-range, low-cost strike platforms.

“There is immense interest from our friends around the world in Ukraine’s developments, our capabilities and our technological production,” Zelenskyy said recently.

Last fall, reports emerged indicating that Ukraine was considering lifting a wartime ban on drone exports, seeking to take advantage of growing demand worth as much as $20 billion annually, per an estimate by Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Marikovskyi.

Ukraine’s military and intelligence services collaborate with domestic and international private companies to expand their drone capabilities. Kyiv has estimated there are more than 200 domestic companies working in the sector. This year, Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to produce 30,000 long-range drones and 3,000 ballistic missiles.

This month’s brief U.S. aid and intelligence freeze has raised concerns within Ukraine’s domestic drone industry, arguably one of the most insulated and resilient areas of the country’s defense sector.

“The reality is that Western-provided intelligence — and the Americans are a big part of that — does feed into a better targeting picture,” Reynolds said. “The efficiency and effectiveness is, in part, tied to that.”

“Ukraine became partly blinded as to how and where Russian anti-aircraft and electronic warfare systems are being deployed,” Stupak said.

If such a freeze is repeated, “I suppose it will be more difficult for Ukraine to avoid anti-aircraft and electronic warfare systems and maybe we will see decreased levels of successful strikes,” he said.

Ukraine’s largest drone attack of the war thus far came days after the U.S. announced its intelligence sharing freeze. It is not clear whether Ukraine used previously shared intelligence to carry out the strike, in which scores of craft reached Moscow.

Some targets are easier to find than others. Airfields — like Engels strategic bomber air base — oil refineries, ports and the like are static and their locations known to Ukrainian military planners.

Still, a lack of intelligence would make it harder for Kyiv to locate and avoid Russian defensive systems. The pause in American intelligence sharing was brief, but for Ukrainians highlighted their level of reliance on U.S. assistance.

A long-lasting paucity of intelligence would represent “an important vulnerability,” Borsari said. “For very long-range targets, they require satellite information, satellite imagery — and most of the time this information comes from Western allies.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is facing scrutiny over the use of the commercially available app Signal to discuss plans for a U.S. military attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen, but did anyone break the law?

Inadvertently included on the chain was The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who recounted how he was texted information about weapons packages, targets and timing before the strike unfolded.

Goldberg’s report quickly sparked questions about the administration’s handling of sensitive defense information, including whether the chat violated the Espionage Act.

The 1917 law “is the primary statutory vehicle through which the government typically brings criminal prosecutions for mishandling or leaks of classified information,” said national security attorney Bradley Moss.

Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson soon after the U.S. entered World War I, the Espionage Act was aimed at cracking down on disloyal wartime activities.

Despite its title, Moss said “most of the statute has nothing to do with actual espionage and instead more broadly criminalizes the unauthorized storage, dissemination or modification of national defense information.”

President Donald Trump was charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified materials after his first term, allegations Trump denied. The case was dropped after the 2024 election, with the special counsel citing longstanding Justice Department policy not to prosecute sitting presidents.

The statute was also used in high-profile cases against Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira, who was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison for exposing defense information, and Chelsea Manning, who was imprisoned for the unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

Democrats have called for an investigation into the use of the Signal group chat to discuss a military operation and for some officials involved to be fired or resign.

The White House and top officials have sought to minimize the incident, stating in their defense that there was no classified material involved in the message chain.

“This was not classified. Now, if it’s classified information, it’s probably a little bit different,” Trump said as he was hit with questions on the matter during a meeting with some of his ambassadors on Tuesday afternoon.

The exact content of the messages is unclear. The administration denies they included “war plans” though Goldberg said it included operational details of strikes on Yemen, including information about targets and attack sequencing. National Security Council spokesman, in a statement to ABC News on Monday, said the message thread that was reported “appears to be authentic.”

The Espionage Act, though, predates the modern classification system.

“In this context, information related to national defense also has to be information the possessor has a reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation,” said Sam Lebovic, a historian of U.S. politics who has studied the century-old statute.

“And if, as has been alleged, operational details were in that information, I think you could make the case that would be information which could be used to the injury of the U.S. or to the advantage of a foreign nation. And technically, whether or not it’s classified doesn’t have bearing on that definition,” Lebovic said.

Still, the expansive nature of the Espionage Act — which Lebovic said could cover essentially any disclosure of information related to national defense to someone unauthorized to receive it — has resulted in it being relatively rarely used other than in the most egregious cases.

“They’re often not prosecuted because the law is so broadly written, it gives prosecutors a great deal of discretion to decide when to bring charges and when not to,” Lebovic said.

FBI Director Kash Patel was questioned by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on Tuesday in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on whether his bureau would investigate the incident. Patel said he had just been briefed on the matter Monday night and Tuesday morning and didn’t have an update. Warner asked for one by the end of the day.

Officials with the White House’s National Security Council said they “are reviewing” how a reporter was added to the Signal chat, though the scope of the review, including whether it would attempt to determine why high-level discussions about military planning were taking place outside of official channels, was not immediately clear.

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(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Three weeks ago, Hamdan Ballal stood on the stage at the Oscars, golden statue in hand, winner of the award for best documentary as the co-director of “No Other Land.” It was an inspiring moment of unity and coexistence.

On Tuesday, bloodied and bruised, he spoke to ABC News on the phone from a hospital bed in Hebron in the West Bank.

“I’m afraid,” Ballal said. “Really, I’m afraid. I feel, when they attack me, I will lose my life.”

Ballal said he was severely beaten at the hands of Jewish settlers at his home on Monday, just outside the village of Susiya.

Settlers had come into the village throwing stones and harassing residents, including his neighbor, something Ballal says had been happening with increasing frequency since his Oscar win earlier this month.

He started filming before rushing home to his family, trying to block settlers from coming into his house. That’s when the attack began, he said, with several men attacking his head and body, including hitting him with guns.

“It was a hard, hard attack,” Ballal said. “You know, I feel I will die, because this attack was so hard, I bleed from everywhere. I’m crying from deeply in my heart. I feel pain everywhere in my body. So, they continue attacking me like 15-20 minutes.”

He said that, in addition to a plainclothes settler, there were two men present he described as “soldiers with guns,” although he could not say for sure who they were or which Israeli authority they might have represented.

The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police have denied being involved in any beating.

Israeli authorities said that Ballal was detained along with several others on suspicion of throwing stones, damaging property and compromising the security of the area. A Jewish settler was arrested, as well.

The Palestinians — including Ballal — were questioned, held overnight and ultimately released “on conditions that include not contacting other people involved and self-bail,” according to a police statement.

Police say the investigation is continuing, but Ballal strongly denies he did anything wrong.

“I didn’t throw stones, I didn’t do any problems with the settlers,” Ballal said. “The settlers came attacking me and beating me. That’s it.”

Ballal’s Oscar-winning documentary focused on a community’s attempts to resist forced expulsion of Palestinians from a southern area of the West Bank by the Israeli government.

The number of Israeli settlers has dramatically increased in the West Bank in recent decades.

Palestinians, human rights groups and the United Nations have accused them of playing an unofficial role in the attempted displacement of Palestinians through the West Bank, with extremists carrying out violent attacks designed to intimidate, instill fear and ultimately force people out of a place they have called home for generations.

“The settler violence has worsened considerably since the war,” said Sari Bashi, a program director at Human Rights Watch. “The people whom the army doesn’t directly displace are left to fend for themselves among violent settlers who scare them off their land.”

Critics say the right-wing coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, at best, turned a blind eye to the violence and, at worst, outright encouraged it, with the ultimate goal, according to prominent settler activists and some far-right members of the government, of annexing the West Bank entirely.

The government has denied responsibility for settler violence and has primarily blamed Palestinians for the continued unrest, though sometimes it blames settlers as well. Netanyahu’s government, which refers to the West Bank by its biblical names of Judea and Samaria, argues that the area is replete with terrorist activity that targets Israelis both in West Bank settlements and inside Israel. The government argues its actions in the West Bank are necessary to keep Israelis safe.

Activists often say that the Israeli Police and the IDF, who have security control over most of the West Bank, fail to protect them from settler attacks or adequately prosecute cases of settler violence. The IDF intervenes when scuffles between settlers and activists escalate, but prosecuting settler violence is rare. From 2005 to 2024, only 3% of more than 1,000 investigations ended in convictions, according to the nongovernmental organization Yesh Din.

The settlers often cite a deep religious imperative for their actions. Others view attacks as vengeance for deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Many routinely deny responsibility for the West Bank acts of violence that have risen in recent years but have gone on for decades.

Ballal was released from the hospital on Tuesday. ABC News asked why he chose to speak publicly if he is afraid for his life.

“I’ve been afraid like this since I was born, until now,” Ballal said. “So, I have to speak. Yes, I’m afraid, but I live this situation all my life. So I hope, I hope, because I speak with [ABC News], it can change something.”

ABC News’ Guy Davies, Mike Pappano and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

 

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