Israel releases Oscar-winning Palestinian director

Hebron: Israeli authorities released an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained by the army after being attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, who his wife said beat him in front of his home while filming the assault. Hamdan Ballal and the other directors of “No Other Land,” which looks at the struggles of living under Israeli occupation, had mounted the stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month when it won the award for best documentary film.

Ballal and two other Palestinians detained with him were released Tuesday afternoon from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, and the three were driven to a hospital in the neighboring Palestinian city of Hebron, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene