Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to impose a lockdown on Hebron in the occupied West Bank, conduct house-to-house searches and demolish homes after the Israeli military said Palestinian attackers killed two soldiers at a checkpoint near the city.
The military said its forces killed two suspected attackers in the incident, while three other soldiers suffered light injuries.
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During a visit to Hebron, Mr Netanyahu said troops would enter the neighbourhood where the attackers lived and remove its residents.
“We will evacuate the residents, we will go from house to house, we will also seize the weapons there, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed,” Netanyahu said, according to his office.
An Israeli soldier aims his weapon as Israeli security forces patrol the area in Hebron
Israeli soldiers at the northern entrance to Hebron
“The IDF is ready to execute it and we will set the timing, but it is on the way.”
Mr Netanyahu said the operation would follow a model used previously in refugee camps in the northern West Bank. A major military campaign known as “Iron Wall” began in January 2025 and forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people from several camps, according to the UN rights office.
By July this year, the UN said 33,362 Palestinian refugees driven from the three camps had still not been allowed to return.
Nearly two years after the operation began, Israeli forces remain in Jenin refugee camp, which before Iron Wall had been a stronghold for armed Palestinian groups opposing the Israeli occupation.
The army also continues to operate in two refugee camps in the nearby city of Tulkarem.
In each of the three camps, the military said it had demolished dozens of homes in the tightly packed alleyways to make room for troops and armoured vehicles. It also established operational centres inside residents’ houses.
Two armed men were shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near Hebron
“The Jenin refugee camp model is on its way to Hebron,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on social media.
“Every clan neighbourhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged today will be evacuated of its residents, and the terror infrastructure in the neighbourhood will be addressed and dismantled,” he said, referring to the large families, or clans, that wield considerable influence across Hebron.
Human Rights Watch later said in a report that the mass expulsions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel rejected the findings, saying civilian infrastructure had to be demolished to prevent militants from using it. The government did not say when residents might be permitted to return.
A Reuters reporter saw Israeli bulldozers begin demolishing homes in Hebron close to the location of the shooting.
Residents in the area said the buildings had no links to the attackers.
The demolitions began after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on social media that he had ordered the immediate destruction of Palestinian buildings near the site of the attack.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir urged the government to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and prohibit all Palestinians in the West Bank from using the roads.
The violence came shortly before an Israeli election next week, as Mr Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition campaign on expanding Israeli settlements and opposing the creation of a Palestinian state.
Read more: Gadi Eisenkot – Israel’s ‘not Netanyahu’ candidate
The Hebron attack unfolded as tensions intensified across the West Bank, where violence by Israeli settlers has risen sharply in recent weeks.
In remarks after the attack, Mr Netanyahu praised Israeli settlers in the West Bank as “heroic” and said they were “standing in the breach”.
Under Mr Netanyahu’s leadership, Israeli settlements have expanded rapidly.
UN bodies and most governments consider Israel’s settlements on territory captured during war to be illegal under international law governing military occupations.
Israel disputes that position, describing the territory as contested rather than occupied.
A crowd gathered after a fatal Israeli drone strike in Gaza
Israeli strikes kill four in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least four people in Gaza in separate incidents yesterday, health officials in the enclave said.
In Gaza City, medics said at least one person died when a car was hit in a strike.
They had initially reported two deaths.
Photographs from the scene showed a crowd gathered around the burning wreckage while emergency workers in orange vests sprayed it with water.
Medics said other strikes killed a Palestinian man riding a bicycle in the southern city of Khan Younis and another man near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Gunfire killed a woman near the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, they added.
Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants in Khan Younis, Nuseirat and Gaza City, but said it had no information about the reported incident in Jabalia.
The Hamas-led Interior Ministry in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike killed a non-commissioned officer and wounded another officer from the drug control police department after their vehicle was struck while returning from an assignment in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood.
Israel says Hamas has been rebuilding its forces and carrying out attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, and has intensified strikes against the group in recent weeks.
Hamas denies attempting attacks or restoring its arsenal, accusing Israel instead of undermining the Gaza peace agreement.
The US-brokered ceasefire reached last year provides for the eventual reconstruction of the territory.
Progress, however, has remained limited as negotiators have failed to resolve disputes over Hamas disarmament and an Israeli troop withdrawal.
Israeli airstrikes have continued.
Health officials in Gaza say at least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the ceasefire, while Israel says four of its soldiers have died.
Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, which began after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel three years ago.
