• Analysis
Israeli army withdraws from Hebron neighbourhood as displaced Palestinians return home
The Israeli army has pulled out of a Hebron neighbourhood, ending the operation it launched after two soldiers were killed in late October. Thousands of displaced Palestinians are heading back to homes, many damaged or ransacked.
Residents return after troops leave
The Israeli army withdrew from a Hebron neighbourhood on Monday, a military official said, marking the end of the operation in the occupied West Bank. The emptied area sits in the West Bank's largest city and is where the two gunmen behind the checkpoint attack had lived.
Some of the thousands of displaced Palestinians who left during the raid are now going home again; many of the houses they are returning to were damaged or ransacked. AFP journalists watched residents walk back in on Monday once the military had gone.
Muhannad al-Tamimi, whose house had been occupied by soldiers since the operation began, described what his family found when they came back:
a trashed apartment with furniture and clothing strewn on the floors
Why the operation began
The raid followed the killings of two Israeli soldiers in late October. On October 23, two Palestinian gunmen attacked an army checkpoint near Hebron, killing the soldiers.
- •The attack came days ahead of close-fought Israeli elections.
- •Senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promised a major retaliatory operation.
- •By the following morning the military had emptied the assailants' neighbourhood, displacing more than 3,000 people, according to the municipality.
What the military says it found and did
The military official said soldiers searched multiple locations, detained and questioned suspects, and confiscated four weapons, several vests and additional military equipment.
- •The two attackers' homes were demolished.
- •The military said it "sealed an underground space located next to" one of the homes.
What comes next
The military official said counterterrorism activities throughout Judea and Samaria - the biblical name for the Palestinian territory - continue.
