Israel removes around 250 Palestinian families from West Bank city of Hebron after soldier deaths
Days before tight elections are due to be held in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a massive operation on the West Bank after two Israeli soldiers were killed by militants at a checkpoint.
Israeli forces entered the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, displacing around 250 Palestinian families overnight. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a heavy-handed operation, likening it to those since Israel's initial occupation of the West Bank in 1967. This comes after Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Hebron on Friday, a city where hardline Israeli settlers reside among the local Palestinian population.
The military operation is set to commence just days before Israel's general elections on Tuesday, where Netanyahu is anticipated to face a close contest with the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot. In the Ein Dir Baha neighborhood, buildings were marked with 'X' signs indicating they had been vacated. The streets were empty except for Israeli military vehicles.
Governor Khaled Dudin stated that around one-third of Hebron—approximately 250 families—were affected, while the mayor of Hebron and a local activist reported the figure as 250.
The Israeli military disclosed that the operation would persist for several days, targeting the area where the attackers were located, and emphasized that it was "precise, targeted, and thorough." Prime Minister Netanyahu's security advisor, Itamar Ben Gvir, advocated for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous body governing parts of the West Bank under peace accords from the 1990s.
Taxis formed a queue outside Hebron's gates, waiting for Palestinians who had to cross on foot, with all vehicle gates barred. The military did not respond to inquiries about the operation. On Friday, it claimed to have initiated "precise, targeted, and thorough searches" in the vicinity of the gunmen's actions. Human rights group Yesh Din documented 672 instances of settler violence over the past 26 days, with nearly half linked to the olive harvest—a culturally significant event for Palestinians targeted by extremist settlers.
Recent polls indicate Netanyahu and Eisenkot are evenly matched, with the latter promising to curb settler violence.
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