Yinon Levi, a sanctioned settler who allegedly shot dead a Palestinian activist on Monday during a confrontation near the West Bank village of Umm al Kheir, was released to house arrest by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

He was ordered to remain under house arrest at a farm inside Israel under the supervision of his wife and sister-in-law until Friday, and was banned from contacting anyone involved in Monday’s deadly incident for 21 days.

Police are seeking to charge Levi — who is sanctioned by Canada, the UK, and the European Union — with reckless manslaughter and unlawful use of a firearm over the killing of Awdah Hathaleen, a prominent Palestinian activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” who was fatally shot in the upper body during a confrontation on Monday.

Two other Palestinians were said to have been wounded in the same incident.

Hathaleen was a resident of Masafer Yatta, a string of hamlets in the South Hebron Hills that have been declared a military zone by Israel.

The residents’ efforts to prevent Israeli forces from destroying their homes were the subject of “No Other Land,” which won Best Documentary at the Oscars in March.

Monday’s shooting occurred as pro-Palestinian activists attempted to block earthworks being carried out by Levi close to the Carmel settlement, which is immediately adjacent to Umm al Kheir.

The Peace Now organization said Hathaleen sent a WhatsApp message to activists in the area informing them that Levi tried to sever the village’s main water pipe. He then headed to the construction site with other activists to try to stop the work from being carried out.

In video footage from the scene of the confrontation, Levi can be seen holding a handgun and firing into the air, allegedly to distance the Palestinians.

Video filmed after the incident that was shared by pro-Palestinian activists appeared to show Levy speaking with army personnel and police officers while pointing to Umm al-Kheir residents inside the village. The police and IDF soldiers then entered the dwelling and arrested residents, apparently on Levy’s recommendation.

During Tuesday’s court hearing on extending Levi’s remand in custody, a police representative said “a large number of rioters” threw rocks at Levi and a minor operating the heavy construction vehicle “to harm them.”

Levy owns a construction company, together with his brother, by the name of Il Harei Yehudah. The Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry, has sub-contracted Il Harei Yehudah to carry out demolition work against illegal Palestinian structures in the South Hebron Hills.

The name and logo of Il Harei Yehudah can be seen on the T-shirt Levy was wearing on Monday when he allegedly shot Hathaleen.

In one incident in 2023, Levy destroyed three water cisterns in the Palestinian hamlet of Susyia with his bulldozer, while carrying out work for the Civil Administration forming a roadblock on the South Hebron Hills dwelling’s only access road.

Il Harei Yehudah is also apparently involved in demolition work in Gaza, according to Levy’s attorney Avichai Hajbi. In arguing against keeping Levy in police custody, Hajbi told the court on Tuesday that Levy is an IDF contractor “who is working everyday in Shejaiya,” a neighborhood of Gaza City.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Havi Tucker asserted that Levi’s claim of having acted in self-defense was strengthened by statements from “two objective witnesses.”

Besides Levy, five Palestinian activists were arrested over the incident, as well as two foreign nationals volunteering with them, all of whom remain in jail. According to the Israeli co-director of “No Other Land,” Yuval Abraham, four of the detained Palestinians are Hathaleen’s relatives.

Far-right Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech attended Levi’s hearing on Tuesday, saying in a video statement that she was there to support “Israel’s hero.”

“In a country that values life, those who protect their lives and the lives of their families are rewarded, not dragged into extended detention,” she declared.

Meanwhile, as Levi was freed to house arrest, Israeli security forces arrived at Umm al Kheir to dismantle a mourning tent set up in memory of Hathaleen.

Footage from the scene showed soldiers instructing all non-residents of the village to leave as the area was being declared a closed military zone.

France, meanwhile, condemned Hathaleen’s death as “murder,” and described Israeli settler violence, which has spiked in recent months, as “terrorism.”

“France condemns this murder with the utmost firmness as well as all deliberate acts of violence committed by extremist settlers against the Palestinian population, which are multiplying across the West Bank,” a foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

“These acts of violence are acts of terrorism.”

The spokesman urged Israeli authorities to “immediately sanction the perpetrators of these acts of violence, which continue with complete impunity, and protect Palestinian civilians.”

The American dovish Zionist organization J Street also issued a condemnation, saying it was “heartbroken and horrified” over the incident.

“This violence is not random,” it said in a statement. “It is the result of an Israeli government that empowers settler violence and refuses to hold perpetrators to account.”

Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

The military says troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas, since the October 7 onslaught.

During the same period, 53 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

Agencies contributed to this report.