JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie “No Other Land.”

The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.

In a video posted on X by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is “no passage” in the area because of a military order. 

Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit.

‘They don’t want the world to see what is happening here’

“They don’t want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,” said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. “It’s clear they don’t want the world to see what is happening here.”

Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. 

Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats have visited the villages in the past.

Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kick-started the war in the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks, and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them.

Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba on Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents’ belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. 

The military demolished much of the village last month.

“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. 

The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, along with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film has won a string of international awards.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. 

The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. 

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

LONDON: Top-secret Syrian intelligence files have confirmed that missing American journalist Austin Tice was held in detention by the regime of Bashar Assad, the BBC claimed on Monday, marking the most definitive evidence yet tying the former regime to his disappearance.

Tice, a former US Marine turned freelance journalist, vanished in August 2012 near Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, just days after his 31st birthday while reporting on the escalating conflict.

For years, the Syrian regime has consistently denied any involvement.

However, files obtained by the BBC — alongside testimonies from former Syrian officials — appear to corroborate longstanding suspicions by US authorities that the Assad regime was behind his abduction.

The documents include internal communications between branches of Syrian intelligence that explicitly name Tice and detail aspects of his detention following his capture near the capital, the BBC claimed.

Shortly after his disappearance, the only public evidence of Tice’s status came in the form of a video posted online showing him blindfolded, surrounded by armed men, and reciting the Islamic declaration of faith.

Although the footage suggested extremist involvement, US intelligence at the time raised doubts about its authenticity, with one analyst calling it possibly “staged.”

In early 2013, Reuters reported that “an American man, dressed in ragged clothing,” was seen attempting to escape through the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood before being recaptured after more than five months in captivity.

He has not been seen since, and no group has ever claimed responsibility for holding him.

The BBC’s investigation, part of a long-running project for Radio 4, claimed that Tice was held in a regime-run detention facility believed to be the notorious Tahouneh prison in Damascus.

A former senior Syrian intelligence officer testified that Tice was detained by the pro-Assad National Defence Forces “until at least February 2013.”

According to the report, Tice suffered from stomach problems while in the NDF’s captivity and was treated by a doctor at least twice, including for a viral infection.

A witness who saw him during detention said Tice “looked sad” and “the joy had gone from his face,” though he was reportedly treated more humanely than Syrian inmates due to his perceived value.

A former member of the NDF, described by the BBC as having “intimate knowledge of Austin’s detention,” said the regime saw Tice as a “card” to be used in negotiations with the US.

The files also confirm that he attempted to escape through a window but was quickly apprehended and later interrogated at least twice, the BBC claimed.

These newly uncovered documents appear to be the first hard evidence directly tying the Assad regime to Tice’s imprisonment, undermining more than a decade of Syrian denials.

The investigation was conducted in collaboration with a Syrian war crimes investigator, who granted BBC reporters access to the intelligence archive.

Despite the collapse of the Assad regime in December, no trace of Tice was found among the prisoners released. Yet hope remains. In the immediate aftermath, then-US President Joe Biden reiterated his belief that Tice was still alive.

That view was echoed by Nizar Zakka, head of a US-based hostage advocacy group, who claimed Tice was likely being held by “very few people in a safe house in order to do an exchange or a deal.”

Two days before Biden’s remarks, Tice’s mother, Debra, said a “significant source” had confirmed her son was alive and being treated well. In early May, she told The Washington Post that the US government was aware of his location, though no further details were disclosed.

President Donald Trump also placed a spotlight on the case during his recent visit to the Gulf.

After meeting the Syrian Arab Republic’s new president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, Trump told reporters, “Austin has not been seen in many, many years,” without elaborating.

The comment came days after Sky News Arabia falsely reported that Tice’s body had been discovered in a cemetery in northern Syria, a claim the family condemned as “deeply disrespectful.”

The Tice family, who have led a decade-long campaign for answers, are aware of the new evidence, as are US officials and Syrian human rights groups.

Tice, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before studying law at Georgetown University, is believed to be one of the longest-held American hostages in history.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people disappeared during Assad’s rule.