Israeli forces continued a major operation in Hebron on Sunday, with the city’s municipality saying that more than 2,600 Palestinians had been displaced from their homes as movement restrictions widened across the occupied West Bank.
The operation began after a shooting near Hebron on Friday in which two Israeli soldiers were killed. The Israeli military said two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint and were then killed. No armed group had claimed responsibility for the attack at the time the subsequent operation was reported.
Israeli forces concentrated searches in the Deir Bahha and Al-Jalda areas near the checkpoint. The military said it was looking for weapons and people it described as militants, and said demolitions would form part of the operation. Those stated aims have not settled the immediate questions facing residents whose homes and neighbourhoods have been affected.
Displacement estimates rose as the operation continued. On Saturday, Hebron’s municipality said about 1,200 people had already left their homes and that a further 1,300 faced losing access to theirs. By Sunday, municipal figures put the number displaced at more than 2,600. Local officials also said families had been displaced from nearly 500 flats in Deir Bahha and nearby areas.
The figures describe a fast-changing situation rather than a final tally. They are municipal estimates made while searches, evacuations and road restrictions were still under way. It remained unclear how long individual families would be unable to return, or whether all the properties affected would remain closed for the same period.
Access to and from Hebron was heavily restricted. Municipal officials said entrances and exits to the city had been sealed, with the effect reaching workplaces, shops, religious sites and journeys for medical appointments. The disruption extended beyond the neighbourhoods where the military said it was conducting searches.
The restrictions also reached beyond the city. The Israeli military said most Palestinian workers holding permits would not be allowed to enter Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Sunday and Monday. It also said crossings into Israel would remain closed until after Tuesday’s election. The measures added a broader movement limit to the local cordon around Hebron, though the military did not give a public end date for the city operation itself.
Israeli forces said they had operated in more than 400 locations over the weekend and arrested 40 Palestinians whom they alleged were affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Those claims concern the military’s account of its activity and were not accompanied by a public court finding. The military declined to say how long its Hebron operation would continue.
The escalation came in the final days before Israel’s election, with voting scheduled for Tuesday. The election timing is part of the political backdrop, but the stated immediate trigger for the operation was Friday’s deadly shooting. Hebron officials have criticised the scale of the measures, while the military has presented them as a security response. The diverging accounts leave the duration of the restrictions and the prospects for displaced families unresolved.
