Israel Locks Down the West Bank After Hebron Attack Kills Two Soldiers

Israel has ordered a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank and launched raids on towns across the territory after an attack in the Hebron area killed two Israeli soldiers, according to Al Jazeera and NBC News. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order Friday, and Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces detained dozens of Palestinians overnight.

The military operation in Hebron is expected to last “for several days,” the Israeli army said late Friday, according to Al Jazeera, but Palestinians fear it could last much longer. It comes days before Israel’s election on Oct. 27.

The key numbers

• 2 soldiers killed. The Israeli military said it killed two Palestinian gunmen who attacked a reserve battalion near the Telem settlement. Israel’s ambulance service first reported at least five soldiers injured, two of whom later died, per Al Jazeera.
• Nearly 1,000 checkpoints and gates. Al Jazeera reported that this many across the West Bank will be closed, affecting millions of Palestinians.
• At least 15 towns. Al Jazeera correspondents said raids hit towns in the north, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya. Forces also entered Jericho and a nearby refugee camp.
• About 240 families. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said this many Palestinian families were forced from homes in two Hebron neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday. Al Jazeera cited 200 families displaced in one of them, al-Jalda.
• About 320,000 people. NBC News said that is the population of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank.

What is happening on the ground

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli bulldozers demolished a three-story building in Hebron and that families were given five minutes to collect belongings. NBC News spoke with Riyad Mureish, a 49-year-old businessman whose home was torn down Friday. He said the property had long been in dispute with Israeli authorities and that a court decree should have blocked demolition. He is now sheltering with his wife and children in a small room at a neighbor’s house.

Netanyahu visited Hebron on Friday, wearing a military-style vest. According to NBC News, he said troops would enter neighborhoods the attackers came from, move residents out and go “house to house.” He also said Israel would destroy what he called terrorist infrastructure and build infrastructure for settlement. Al Jazeera said he pledged to repeat what he described as a successful model in the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps, which has raised fears among Palestinians of months of displacement and large-scale demolitions.

Hebron’s Palestinian mayor, Yousef al-Jabari, told NBC News that Israeli forces had sealed all entrances to the city and that soldiers were demanding residents leave an entire densely populated area. He said a key mosque had been closed. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to NBC News’s request for comment.

What it means for Palestinians in the West Bank

With roads and checkpoints between communities closed, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said villages and towns are cut off from one another. Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti told Al Jazeera that the closures block health care, the economy and schools, and he warned that collective punishment would lead to violence.

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at a briefing Friday that closures severely restrict freedom of movement and access to basic services and livelihoods. A spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office in the Palestinian territory, Mayy El Sheikh, said the lockdown follows a pattern of “collective punishment” after Palestinians attack Israeli settlers or soldiers.

Politics before Tuesday’s vote

Al-Jabari said Netanyahu was seeking votes by appeasing settlers. Analyst H.A. Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute in London told NBC News the move could be a show of strength, but that the link to the election was not clear because the main candidates are broadly aligned on the West Bank. Even if Netanyahu lost, Hellyer said, he did not expect change there.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to the soldiers’ deaths by calling for Israel to take full control of the West Bank, Al Jazeera reported. The Palestinian Authority warned of “ongoing Israeli escalation” and urged the international community to intervene, while Hamas said the Israeli actions would only fuel more anger.

Tensions had already been rising before the attack, with settler violence and military activity, including attacks on olive harvesters, according to both outlets. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, Al Jazeera noted.

Around Prague, based on reporting by Al Jazeera, NBC News