Netanyahu orders 'very extensive' West Bank operation after two soldiers killed near Hebron
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a 'very extensive' operation in the West Bank after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three at a checkpoint outside Hebron. As the first home demolitions began, Israel's high court issued a temporary order halting them after an urgent petition.
Netanyahu orders 'very extensive' West Bank operation after two soldiers killed near Hebron
Attack at the checkpoint
Gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside Hebron, prompting Benjamin Netanyahu's West Bank operation order and a siege announced on Hebron and neighbouring Halhul. Netanyahu said residents of the gunmen's home neighbourhoods would be forced out.
According to the Israeli military, two men armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at the temporary checkpoint while driving a car with Israeli number plates. They were killed after a 20-minute gunfight.
- Netanyahu announced the siege of Hebron and Halhul.
- He ordered what he called a 'very extensive' operation in the West Bank.
- The first home demolitions began within hours of the attack.
- An AFP photographer on the way to another assignment witnessed and documented the gun battle.
High court halts demolitions
The court intervention came after lawyer Mohammed Dahleh filed an urgent petition on behalf of two nearby factory owners, and the high court issued a temporary order halting the demolitions. Dahleh argued that the demolition violated international law on collective punishment and Israeli administrative law.
'What we saw today was an attempt to copy the illegal practices used in Gaza, in the heart of the West Bank,' Dahleh said.
He added: 'They want to wipe out entire areas exactly as they did in Gaza and the refugee camps in the West Bank.'
The demolitions that triggered the petition included one filmed by finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who posted a video of himself in front of a bulldozer tearing down a Palestinian home near the shooting site. Smotrich said the demolition of a home built without permits aimed to 'create deterrence and exact a price'; no connection between its owners and the attackers was claimed. Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard called the video a 'direct admission' that the demolitions were a collective punishment.
Threatened operation's scale
Netanyahu said plans had been drawn up for the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967. In 1967, Israeli forces occupied the Palestinian territory and forcibly displaced about 300,000 Palestinians. Asked for a date, Netanyahu said none had been set 'but it is on the way', pledging displacement, demolitions and settlement expansion.
Defence minister Israel Katz promised further mass demolitions and forced displacement, drawing an explicit comparison with Gaza. Invoking the Jenin model, Katz said: 'The Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron. Every clan neighbourhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged today will be evacuated of its residents.'
Nearly 20,000 people have already been forced from their homes in Jenin refugee camp. Hebron, where such an evacuation is now threatened, is the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, with about 250,000 residents.
Pressure on the press
The AFP photographer who documented the gun battle became the target of groundless conspiracy theories spread by prominent Israelis, including an Amcha Yisrael party candidate, accusing him of links to the gunmen.
The Foreign Press Association said it was deeply alarmed and described the accusations as 'dangerous and defamatory', pointing out that the photographer had been travelling to a separate job and was carrying out his professional duty in recording the shooting.
The episode came a week after settlers severely injured the photographer Heidi Levine as she documented attacks on Palestinians harvesting olives in the West Bank. Israel has also denied entry to several European journalists and an academic.
Where things stand
National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir travelled to Hebron on Friday and demanded the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement. Netanyahu said the wider operation had no date yet; the high court's temporary order had halted the demolitions after the urgent petition.
