Israel’s military has launched a major operation in the occupied West Bank after two Israeli soldiers were killed by gunmen in the Hebron area, just days before the country’s election.
Israeli forces sealed off Hebron and began searching homes, questioning suspects and targeting what the military and Shin Bet domestic security agency described as “terrorist infrastructure”. The operation is expected to continue for several days.
The two attackers were killed after a gun battle at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, according to an AFP photographer who witnessed the clash. The men were armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle, the photographer said.
Israeli authorities said troops were also demolishing structures considered a potential security threat and conducting counter-terrorism operations at dozens of locations.
Israeli military operation in the West Bank
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene with Defence Minister Israel Katz and ordered a lockdown across the West Bank. He said the soldiers had prevented “what could have been a major attack”.
Mr Netanyahu said the government was considering an extensive military operation in “Judea and Samaria”, the Israeli term for the West Bank, on a scale not seen since the 1967 war.
He said the proposed operation would involve entering the neighbourhood from which the attackers came, evacuating residents, searching houses and destroying what he called terrorist infrastructure.
Mr Netanyahu said the military would use a model previously deployed in refugee camps in the northern West Bank. The United Nations said that operation, launched in January 2025, forcibly displaced thousands of people.
Hamas praised the attack as a “heroic operation” without claiming responsibility, and called on supporters to carry out further attacks. Mr Netanyahu said Israel would pursue Hamas militants “everywhere”, adding: “You have no place to hide.”
The Israeli military’s response has drawn warnings from rights groups and the United Nations. Israeli organisation B’Tselem urged international pressure to prevent what it called plans for collective punishment and acts that could amount to war crimes.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about closures affecting Palestinian livelihoods and called for an end to violence by all sides.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a large-scale offensive in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza”. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the territory, “must be dismantled”.
There is no evidence in the material provided that the Palestinian Authority was connected to Friday’s shooting. Mr Ben Gvir and Mr Smotrich are prominent supporters of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
The operation comes as tensions continue to rise in the territory, including over attacks by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinian olive harvesters.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,117 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli figures record at least 51 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations over the same period.
