Israeli prosecutors have indicted a settler over the July 2025 killing of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist shot in the occupied West Bank, in what rights groups call the first such charge against an Israeli civilian for killing a Palestinian in the territory since 2019 [1].
The Israeli rights group Yesh Din said it was the first indictment of an Israeli civilian for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank since 2019 [1].
The rights group B'Tselem called the indictment "the exception that proves the rule," pointing to the near-total absence of prosecutions in a system where settler violence against Palestinians rarely reaches a courtroom [1].
Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist, was killed in July 2025. The charge, more than a year later, is the first of its kind in six years by the count rights groups cite.
For the family of Awdah Hathaleen, the indictment is a rare turn toward accountability. The cost it measures is the silence around it: by Yesh Din's count, no Israeli civilian had been charged for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank in the six years before this case.
