Thousands of Palestinians have been forced from their homes in Hebron, including the wives and children who had been living in the homes of Ahmad and Hammouda al-Jaabeh before the area was cleared. The Hebron municipality said on Tuesday that 4,969 Palestinians from 780 families had been displaced by the offensive.
Israel launched the operation after the two Palestinian brothers killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in an attack on 23 October near the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint at Hebron’s western entrance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would retaliate with a sweeping anti-terror operation in the Hebron neighbourhood where the gunmen had lived.
Ahmad and Hammouda al-Jaabeh opened fire on Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint early on Friday, using an M16 rifle and a handgun. The checkpoint is near the entrance to Hebron, a city of more than 200,000 people.
The two soldiers killed were Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, a squad commander in the Ari Battalion (775) of the Search and Rescue Brigade, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon, a combat soldier in the same battalion and brigade.
The brothers were shot dead during a firefight that lasted approximately 20 minutes.
Netanyahu ordered the military to seal off Hebron and imposed a general closure on the occupied West Bank, beginning on Friday. He said: “We will evacuate the residents, we will go house by house, we will also remove the weapons there, and all the terror infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed.”
On Friday, the eighth day of the military offensive and siege, Israeli forces demolished the brothers’ homes. Army engineers had spent at least nine hours inside the buildings, laying explosives before detonating them.
At least 12 Palestinians were detained when residents tried to approach the demolition site. Dozens of displaced residents later protested near the closed al-Jalda roundabout, calling for an end to the siege and the right to return home.
Since the operation began, Israeli forces have arrested at least 120 Palestinians. They have fully emptied the Ein Deir Bahha neighbourhood, with some homes converted into military barracks and command centres.
Hundreds of families in the neighbouring al-Jalda area remain trapped in their homes, while at least 13 businesses near the checkpoint have been demolished.
Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, said the displacement raised “grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force”. He added that “threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.”
Israeli military and settler attacks across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, have intensified since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023. The latest closure was the fourth time in the past month that Israel had imposed restrictions across the West Bank territory.
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