Hamdan Ballal, one of the two Palestinian filmmakers who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” is free. He was released Tuesday from Israeli custody, less than a day after Israeli military and police detained him and three other people following a brutal attack Monday by settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Ballal was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. He had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes. Upon his release, the filmmaker told the Associated Press that he was in custody at an army base and forced to sleep under an air conditioner.

“I was blindfolded for 24 hours,” he told AP. “All the night, I was freezing. It was a room, I couldn’t see anything ... I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me.”

Ballal was detained Monday evening after a group of masked settlers descended on the Palestinian village Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area and beat him in his head and stomach, his Israeli co-director and journalist Yuval Abraham and activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence alleged. Abraham said in a tweet shared Monday that “soldiers invaded the ambulance (Ballal) called, and took him.” Activist Basel Adra, another Palestinian co-director of “No Other Land,” also tweeted about Ballal’s detainment Monday, sharing a photo of a person with their hands behind their back being escorted into a vehicle bearing the Israeli flag. “Hamdan...is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding,” Adra said.

Palestinian residents said the settlers, some wearing masks, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms, attacked as residents were breaking for their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, AP reported.

The filmmaker’s wife Lamia Ballal recounted her husband’s detainment and the attack to AP. She said she heard Ballal being beaten outside their home and heard him screaming, “I’m dying.” Lamia Ballal said her husband was beaten by three men in uniform using the butts of their rifles. She told AP the attention surrounding “No Other Land’s” Oscar win earlier this month led settlers to “attack us more.”

The Center for Jewish Nonviolence on Monday posted dashcam footage on Bluesky of someone shoving three people and punching one member of the group. The video later shows another person — whose face is covered by a mask — joined by several others, picking up an object from the ground and hurling it at the vehicle, destroying the windshield. Video recorded and shared by Anna Lippman, a delegate for the activist group, shows an alternate angle of the confrontation. Lippman also tweeted photos of a vehicle with shards of glass in the passenger seats.

Lippman told The Times via social media messages Monday that more than a dozen settlers attacked Susiya and destroyed property. She also said that Israeli soldiers took Ballal from the ambulance where he was receiving care, and detained two other Palestinian men.

In a Monday statement, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces shared its account of the “violent confrontation.” The spokesperson said the dispute broke out after several people it described as “terrorists” allegedly hurled rocks at Israeli citizens and damaged their vehicles. The incident involved “mutual rock-hurling between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene,” the statement said.

IDF said its members and Israel police responded “to disperse the confrontation,” and that the people it described as “terrorists” started hurling rocks their way. The spokesperson said Israeli military and police forces also detained an Israeli person allegedly involved in the confrontation and took all four detainees for further questioning. The IDF spokesperson also denied allegations it detained someone from inside an ambulance. The Times learned Monday afternoon that Israeli forces had detained Ballal on suspicion of hurling rocks at IDF and police.

The IDF spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ request for more information about Ballal’s release and the status of the three other detainees. The spokesperson also did not immediately respond to The Times’ inquiry about Ballal’s claims about the conditions of his detainment.

The attorney representing Ballal and the two other Palestinian men who were detained did not immediately respond to The Times on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Adra tweeted photos of Ballal receiving medical care. He wrote that his co-director “was beaten by soldiers and settlers all over his body.” He repeated claims that Israeli soldiers left Ballal “blindfolded and handcuffed” for the entirety of his time in custody. The photos show Ballal lying on a medical exam table with two medical personnel around him, one wrapping a blood pressure monitor around the director’s left arm. Dark stains that look like blood dot the sleeves and the front of Ballal’s striped shirt.

Just weeks ago, Ballal joined his “No Other Land” co-directors Adra, Abraham and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor in accepting the documentary feature prize at the 97th Academy Awards. The film, which recently became the subject of controversy in Miami Beach earlier this month, documents Israel’s demolition of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta and displacement of its communities in favor of Israeli military training grounds.

Despite a lack of commitment from U.S. distributors, various theaters across the country are screening “No Other Land,” including the Laemmle Theatres’ Santa Monica and Glendale locations and the Lumiere Theater in Beverly Hills. The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs will host a screening of the film Friday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.

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