Israeli forces cordoned off Hebron and demolished buildings after a checkpoint attack, displacing hundreds of families days before Israel’s election.
Israeli forces flattened buildings, sealed off roads and forced hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in Hebron following a deadly checkpoint shooting, BBC News reported. The broad military crackdown began Friday after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others before troops shot the attackers dead outside the occupied West Bank city.
The demolitions follow the shootout that left two Israeli soldiers and two gunmen dead, which prompted immediate military cordons and sweeps across the territory.
Bulldozers began tearing through properties the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Hebron in a military vest, NBC News reported. Netanyahu announced that soldiers would enter the neighborhoods where the attackers lived, evacuate residents and conduct door-to-door searches to dismantle armed networks.
Demolitions and mass displacements across city neighborhoods
Military bulldozers destroyed homes, businesses, industrial facilities and roads in Hebron, according to the city’s mayor, Youssef al-Jaabari. The mayor said the destruction centered on the Ein Deir Baha and Farsh al-Hawa areas, where troops spray-painted buildings marked for demolition. Dozens of families had to sleep outside overnight, and soldiers told some residents to leave on foot without their cars.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reported that troops forced about 240 Palestinian families from their residences in the Jildah and ‘Ein Deir Bahah neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday. The organization said soldiers took over multiple houses, raised Israeli flags over several buildings, and carried out arrests and interrogations. The city’s governor and deputy mayor said at least 200 families had been displaced, while the mayor estimated the military intended to displace 2,500 people across roughly 0.35 square kilometers.
The outlets gave differing figures for Hebron’s overall population. S1 described it as the largest city in the West Bank with about 320,000 residents, while S2 reported the city is home to 200,000 people.
Al-Jaabari said Israeli forces completely sealed all entrances to the city, shut down a major mosque, and placed a densely populated urban sector under an effective siege. The Israel Defense Forces posted on social media that it was targeting dozens of locations across the West Bank and expected operations to continue for several days. Both the military and Israeli officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from news outlets.
Why the operation matters ahead of national elections
The raid comes days before Israel’s national election on Oct. 27, where Netanyahu faces a tight contest to stay in office. The prime minister cancelled Friday morning campaign stops to travel to Hebron, centering his closing campaign appeal on security promises. He pointed to earlier warnings about potential attacks by enemies trying to disrupt the upcoming vote.
Tensions had already climbed in earlier weeks after settlers attack West Bank olive pickers and an American journalist during the harvest season. Facing pressure from right-wing partners, Netanyahu praised Israeli settlers as heroic during his Friday visit.
Netanyahu made his priorities explicit while speaking to cameras in Hebron. “We are going to destroy terrorist infrastructure, and we are going to build the infrastructure for settlement,” he said.
Al-Jaabari called the siege and demolitions collective punishment designed to appeal to settler voters ahead of Tuesday’s election. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition pressed for even tougher action. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged a campaign identical to military operations in Gaza or Lebanon, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority.
H.A. Hellyer, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told NBC News that while Netanyahu might want to project strength before the vote, the main political candidates hold similar positions, meaning Israeli policy in the West Bank is unlikely to change even if Netanyahu loses.
International reaction and plans for wider military action
The Palestinian Authority condemned the forced displacement and called for urgent international intervention rather than verbal statements. Human rights officials also condemned the military’s actions. Mayy El Sheikh, speaking for the United Nations human rights office in the Palestinian territories, described the lockdown as part of an enduring pattern of collective punishment following attacks on soldiers or settlers.
United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Friday that “closures severely restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement, access to basic services and livelihoods.”
Netanyahu likened the Hebron raid to earlier 2025 operations in northern West Bank refugee camps that destroyed hundreds of houses and displaced tens of thousands of residents. In an interview with Israel’s i24 television channel broadcast Saturday, he threatened a major surprise for the Palestinian Authority. He also said he had reviewed operational plans for what would be the military’s largest campaign in the West Bank since 1967, though he gave no date for when troops might execute it.
