Palestinians in the West Bank village of Umm al-Kheir held the funeral of renowned activist Awdah Hathaleen on Thursday, after Israeli authorities handed over his body to his family.
The General Authority of Civil Affairs confirmed that Hathaleen’s body had been transferred to his hometown in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, for burial in the village cemetery.
The Israeli NGO Human Rights Defenders Fund also confirmed the funeral started at 10 am (7 am GMT), while Palestinian media circulated footage showing a convoy entering Umm al-Kheir to transport Hathaleen's body.
On Thursday, Dozens of mourners attended the burial, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, despite initial restrictions by the Israeli military, which had demanded a limited funeral of just 15 people and banned mourning tents near the family home.
While the attendance cap was later lifted, the army maintained a ban on holding the funeral in his hometown village itself. Israeli police also refused to approve revised burial plans.
Hathaleen, featured in the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land', was killed on 28 July after Israeli settlers raided and bulldozed parts of his village, Umm al-Kheir.
He was shot in the chest by an Israeli settler identified by witnesses as Yinon Levi. His killing took place during a daylight raid in which armed settlers, accompanied by bulldozers, attacked the village.
Video evidence allegedly shows the settler fired his gun towards villagers and that two bullets were discharged, one fatally striking Hathaleen. He collapsed immediately and was taken in an Israeli ambulance to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, where he was pronounced dead.
He was 31 years old, an English teacher, father of three, and a prominent critic of Israel’s occupation and settler violence. Following his killing, Israeli authorities withheld his body from the family and village for over a week.
Over 70 women from the village launched a hunger strike to protest this move. Hathaleen’s family filed a petition with the High Court over the continued withholding of his body, following the army’s alleged attempts to impose a restricted funeral away from Umm al-Kheir.
Yinon Levi, the settler accused of killing Hathaleen, was briefly placed under house arrest but released within days.
Human rights groups say the case highlights the lack of accountability for settler violence. The UN agency OCHA reported over 1,860 settler attacks against Palestinians since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.