Located in the southern Judaean Mountains, south of Hebron, it falls under the jurisdiction of Har Hevron Regional Council.

Otniel is named after the first biblical judge of Israel, Othniel Ben Kenaz; the settlement is located between the Palestinian cities of Yatta and Dahariya, adjacent to Highway 60, which connects Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva.

The nearby Jewish settlements to Othniel are Beit Hagai to the north and Shim'a and Mitzpe Eshtemoa to the south.

[3] The settlement was established in 1983 south of Beit Hagai and north of Shim'a and the Palestinian villages of as-Samu, Yatta and ad-Dhahiriya.

[7] [8] [9] In November 2011, an Otniel resident, Rabbi Dan Mertzbach, was killed, and two women were wounded, when an Israel Defense Forces patrol, on alert for suspected militants, fired on their car as they drove to the Cave of the Patriarchs to pray in the early hours of the morning.