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Hebron Displacement: Israeli Forces Move Out 1,200 Palestinians After Attack Kills Two Soldiers
Israeli forces have displaced around 1,200 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Saturday, a day after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the city.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 24, 2026
• 3 Min Read
The hebron displacement, reported by a Palestinian official on Saturday, came a day after an attack on a military checkpoint near the city that killed two Israeli soldiers.
The attack and the military operation
Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military checkpoint near Hebron on Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military said the gunmen were shot dead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the military would launch a large-scale operation after the soldiers were killed.
What the operation covers
The military said the operation targets the Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, near the checkpoint at the entrance of Hebron, and is intended to search for militants and weapons. Demolitions are part of it.
Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, head of Hebron's municipality, said the military had demolished shops, factories, homes and roads in the city, and described the response as disproportionate and unjustified.
Residents said Israeli soldiers marked homes with a black X after their Palestinian occupants had been forced to leave; the meaning of the mark was not immediately clear.
Palestinian response and election claim
The Palestinian Authority criticised the operation as west bank collective punishment and called on Saturday for international pressure on Israel to protect Palestinians.
Al-Jabari said around 1,300 more people faced losing their homes in addition to the 1,200 already displaced. He also tied the timing to politics, saying the Israeli operations were motivated by parliamentary elections on Tuesday, when opinion polls show Netanyahu's right-wing coalition may lose its majority.
Netanyahu and the radical ministers in his government are trying to win as many votes as possible from the settlers.
That was Al-Jabari's assessment of the motive behind the operation.
Arrests and residents' accounts
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said Israeli forces had arrested around 70 Palestinians on Friday and Saturday. Israeli officials have not commented on any arrests.
Residents told Reuters the military expelled many people with no connection to the attackers. Majdi Nasser, who was displaced, said his family had nothing to do with the violence.
We are calling on officials to stand by us because we are not involved in any of this. There are children.
The operation takes place against a wider backdrop of movement restrictions. Across the West Bank, Israel has blocked the entrances to most Palestinian cities and towns, severely curtailing Palestinians' freedom of movement.
Yousef Mur of Yatta said the closures prevented him from taking his daughter to Jerusalem for cancer treatment.
When we tried to cross, they fired stun grenades towards us, and my girl got scared on the way.
Netanyahu's government has presided over a rapid expansion of settlements, deemed illegal by UN bodies and most countries, though Israel disputes this.
Al-Jabari's warning stood as the latest word on the operation's reach: about 1,300 more people in Hebron face losing their homes on top of the 1,200 already displaced, while Israeli officials have not commented on the reported arrests.
