Israel has imposed a lockdown across the occupied West Bank after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in a shooting near Hebron, according to Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans for a major military operation in response.
According to the Guardian, the attack took place near a checkpoint outside Hebron, where gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three others. The Israeli military said two men armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire after being stopped by soldiers at a temporary checkpoint. They were killed after a 20-minute gunfight.
Netanyahu announced a siege on Hebron and on the neighbouring town of Halhul, the Guardian reported. He said residents of the gunmen’s home neighbourhoods would all be forced out and promised mass demolitions of homes.
Netanyahu also said plans had been drawn up for the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967, according to the Guardian. He said there was no date set for it, but that it "is on the way."
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich posted a video of himself standing in front of a bulldozer demolishing a home built without permits, the Guardian reported. No connection between the owners of that home and the attackers was claimed.
Israel’s high court has issued a temporary order to stop the demolitions. The order followed an urgent petition filed by lawyer Mohammed Dahleh on behalf of two nearby factory owners, according to the Guardian.
Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, with about 250,000 residents. Defence minister Israel Katz said Hebron would be targeted in the way the Jenin refugee camp was, the Guardian reported. Nearly 20,000 people have been forced from their homes in Jenin, according to the same report.
The Guardian also reports that more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. That figure is undated in the source and is not confirmed by other reports. The same outlet reports that Israel holds elections on Tuesday, with polls showing the far-right coalition likely to lose its majority.
The scope and duration of the lockdown are not confirmed by a full report. Al Jazeera was available only as a headline and short excerpt, and no second source independently confirms the lockdown terms or the military operation plans. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas has responded in the sources reviewed, and the Israeli military has not published a statement on the lockdown’s terms beyond its account of the checkpoint attack.
What happens next is not yet clear. Netanyahu says the West Bank military operation is planned but has no date. The high court’s temporary order on demolitions remains in place, and Israel votes in elections on Tuesday.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.