Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare for a “very extensive” operation in the occupied West Bank after two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians were killed in an exchange of fire near a checkpoint in Hebron.
The Israeli prime minister said the military would go house to house and demolish homes, in an operation on a scale unseen in the occupied West Bank for decades, after the Israeli military said it had thwarted a “terror attack” by two armed Palestinians on Friday. Tensions are high before next week’s election.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the two assailants opened fire on soldiers at a temporary checkpoint outside Hebron after failing to reach a nearby highway, where the Israeli military believes they had intended to attack civilians. According to a preliminary military investigation, the ensuing gunfight lasted more than ۲۰ minutes, leaving five Israelis wounded, two of whom later died from their injuries.
An AFP photographer who was on the way to another assignment and witnessed the gun battle saw two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces.
Netanyahu’s office later said it had instructed security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full closure of the West Bank starting on Friday.
After the shooting, Netanyahu held an emergency meeting of his security cabinet and officials from top military and security agencies. He said Hamas was “planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians”.
During a visit to Hebron after the attack, Netanyahu later said Israeli forces would enter the neighbourhood of the attackers and displace its residents. He said the military would apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank.
A large-scale military operation named the “Iron Wall” launched in January ۲۰۲۵ and forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people from several refugee camps, according to the UN rights office.
“We will evacuate the residents, we will go from house to house, we will also seize the weapons there, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed,” Netanyahu said, according to his office.
Closures of the West Bank are becoming more common. Friday’s lockdown was the fourth time in the past month that Israel had imposed restrictions across the territory, shutting gates and checkpoints connecting Palestinian villages to major roads, which will remain open to Israeli drivers, including settlers, who can still travel through the area.
Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister who also holds a position within the defence ministry, called for a military campaign in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza”.
He said: “There is no other option but a comprehensive military campaign to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, collect weapons and eliminate terrorists. Exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon.”
Smotrich added: “In the next government this will be one of the first measures that we must demand and apply.”
Human rights groups said Netanyahu and his government might use the attack on Israeli soldiers to try to justify tougher measures against Palestinians and bolster their security credentials before the election.
“Every day in the West Bank is a dramatic day for the Palestinians,” Yariv Oppenheimer, the former director of Peace Now told Al Jazeera. “The Israeli army is getting into the Palestinian cities, the settlers are attacking Palestinians, and the situation is impossible.
“There will be house demolitions. We will see [a] curfew. We will see more soldiers … making arrests, and definitely we might see the settlers trying to target Palestinians in revenge for this attack, and trying to take advantage of this situation in order to escalate the situation even more.”
Voters go to the polls on Tuesday in an election that will help to determine whether Netanyahu secures another term as prime minister. The vote comes three years after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Israeli settlers are increasingly taking over Palestinian properties, and authorities have stepped up demolitions of homes lacking building permits, displacing families.
The campaign has intensified since the war in Gaza started in October ۲۰۲۳ amid accelerating land seizures and settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank. More than ۱,۱۰۰ Palestinians have been killed there by Israeli forces or settlers, whose violence has surged during the annual olive harvest.
Last Friday settlers attacked Palestinian villages, burning cars and trees and injuring a Washington Post photographer. The next day they attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and Palestinian olive pickers, injuring three people and damaging a diplomatic vehicle.
Prominent Israelis, including a candidate for the far-right Amcha Yisrael party, shared conspiracy theories groundlessly accusing the AFP photographer of links to the gunmen, after he documented the Hebron attack.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) said it was deeply alarmed by claims the photographer had been tipped off, describing them as “dangerous and defamatory”.
“He is a longtime professional who was on his way to another assignment and courageously documented what he saw in keeping with his professional duties,” the FPA said in a statement.
The incident came a week after settlers severely injured the photographer Heidi Levine as she documented attacks on Palestinians attempting to harvest olives in the occupied West Bank. Israel has also denied entry to several European journalists and an academic.
