An Israeli settler filmed shooting a bystander in the West Bank is being charged with murder, the first such indictment since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
Yinon Levi, an infamous Israeli activist sanctioned by multiple countries for violent actions against West Bank inhabitants, was indicted Thursday for the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen. The alleged crime took place in July 2025, when a construction project managed by Levi crossed into private Palestinian property in the village of Umm al Khair in the South Hebron Hills.
“I hope that it will be a turning point for more severe enforcement of the law in the West Bank against Jewish terrorists,” Hathaleen family lawyer Eitan Peleg said.
Hathaleen captured footage of his own death, which appears to show Levi confronting a group of angry Palestinians as a construction vehicle attempts to excavate the area. Protesters are seen shouting at Levi, and two throw rocks at the excavator, one of which smashes its side window. Levi then is seen raising a gun and shooting into the crowd.
The victim, holding the camera, then collapses to the ground and can be heard moaning in pain. Hathaleen was a Palestinian activist who contributed footage to the 2024 Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land.
Levi argued to prosecutors that his use of a firearm was done in self-defense and that indicting him is “de facto support for terrorism.” His lawyer has called the charge a “mistaken decision.”
Communities in the West Bank have welcomed the rare indictment but claim that the widespread problem of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians continues to be ignored by the government.
“The decision to indict Yinon Levi is the exception that proves the rule,” Palestinian rights organization B’Tselem said. “The impunity Israel grants to soldiers and settlers who harm Palestinians is not a failure of the system. It is a central component of a policy designed to allow the violence to continue and escalate.”
Levi is being charged with reckless homicide and, if convicted, faces up to 12 years in prison. He also faces lesser charges, including property damage and armed trespassing. Khalil Hathaleen, the brother of the victim, has complained that reckless homicide is too lenient a charge — insisting that it was an “intentional killing in broad daylight, with prior intent and premeditation.”
The Israeli settler activist is already sanctioned by countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, and members of the European Union for human rights violations. He was previously sanctioned by the United States under former President Joe Biden, but those penalties were lifted under President Donald Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly dismissed the idea that there is a widespread problem of Israeli settlers terrorizing Palestinian residents, dismissing the mobs as a “handful of kids.” He maintained that position last month after a delegation to the West Bank led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) was reportedly detained by “Israeli settlers, brandishing American-made M4s.”
Israeli settlers “are 99.9% law-abiding citizens,” Netanyahu said of the incident. “They work, they serve in the army, and so on. There are 150 juvenile delinquents that are not part of that community. They come from the other parts of Israel.”
Israeli expansionism into the West Bank has at times jeopardized the prime minister’s relationship with the White House, such as when the Knesset held a preliminary vote last year to annex the region.
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Vice President JD Vance told Israeli media at the time that the vote amounted to a “very stupid political stunt” and reiterated that the “policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
Vance said this week that Israel remains a “great partner” and that when the viewpoints of Washington and Jerusalem do not align, leaders “have a frank conversation about that.”