'The goal was to kill': Palestinian Oscar winner recounts the settler attack, detention

Israeli police released Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal on Tuesday, after detaining him a day earlier following what activists described as an attack by settlers in the occupied West Bank.

"After I won the Oscar, I did not expect to be exposed to such attacks," Ballal said in a video by AFPTV.

"It was a very strong attack and the goal was to kill."

Ballal said he had been attacked by a settler.

"He was hitting me all over my body and there was also a soldier with him hitting me."

Yuval Abraham, who co-directed "No Other Land", said Ballal has injuries to the "head and stomach, bleeding".

An activist from the anti-occupation group Center for Jewish Nonviolence, who witnessed the attack, said that before Israeli forces arrived, a group of 15 to 20 settlers attacked the activists as well as Ballal's house in the village.