Scale of the destruction

Israeli soldiers carried out sweeping Hebron demolitions in the Ein Deir Baha district, where the municipality estimated 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction by Saturday afternoon. About 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes in that time, according to the municipality.

Videos from a Hebron resident showed:

• houses flattened over several blocks in an urban area
• soldiers marking houses with a sprayed black cross
• a bulldozer tearing down a stone wall
• a residential building hung with Israeli flags

People said the flag-covered building was the home of a prominent Hebron family, commandeered as a temporary military headquarters.

The attack that preceded it

The demolitions followed a Friday attack by two gunmen on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron. After a 20-minute gunfight, two Israeli soldiers were killed, three injured and the two gunmen were also killed. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of entry. Ein Deir Baha, the focus of the demolitions, was alleged to be the home district of the two gunmen.

Election-era response

The operation came four days before Israeli elections, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich travelling to the attack site to promise an immediate and ferocious response. Netanyahu said Israel would "act to destroy this place".

Smotrich, who is running on the list of a smaller coalition party, appeared on camera in body armour beside a Palestinian building as it was pulled down. He said he had ordered "the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site", and called for "a comprehensive military campaign … exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon".

Displaced families and reaction

A Hebron municipality spokesperson said about 300 families had been evicted; some took refuge with friends and relatives while the municipality opened community halls and children's play areas as shelters. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Israeli plans to displace a further 2,500 people.

Hebron civil rights activist Issa Amro, whose sister's family was among the hundreds driven out of their homes, said in a telephone interview that hundreds of families left despite having no connection to the Friday attack, and that it was unclear whether the operation was election propaganda or a serious post-election plan.