Hebron Displaces 2,000 After Checkpoint Attack

The West Bank city of Hebron is now a central fixture in Israel's election campaign.

The shift occurred after two Israeli soldiers died in a gun attack at a military checkpoint on Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appeared on television immediately after the incident. Their coalition is trailing narrowly with two days of campaigning left. Netanyahu warned of military operations on a scale unseen in nearly 60 years of occupation.

The city, which has a population of 250,000, was sealed off within hours of the attack. The Farsh al-Hawa neighborhood, closest to the scene, was leveled. By Sunday morning, an industrial area that previously housed car workshops and a ceramics plant contained only rubble. Bulldozers worked the site while forces moved into a district several kilometers away.

In the Ein Deir Baha district, the Hebron municipality reported that 370 families, totaling nearly 2,000 people, were displaced. The Israeli army stated that residents left voluntarily and that civilians were permitted to evacuate temporarily. Fahed Ahmaro, the imam of the local mosque, rejected that account. He was woken around midnight by loudspeakers on military vehicles ordering homeowners to leave. Ahmaro, who has thirty family members in his home, took his mother and grandchildren to a relative's house. He returned to find the army had blown up the gates. "You don't know what you have until you lose it," he said.

Abdul Halim al-Tamimi, 77, described a different timeline. He said the military arrived at 1:30 am and gave his family ten minutes to leave. An intelligence officer warned that refusal would lead to a displacement similar to that in Gaza. The family stood outside until three military vehicles confronted them. They left at 3 am Saturday. By Sunday morning, their villa was covered in Israeli flags and used as an army headquarters.

The army stated that about 2,000 local residents belong to the Jaba'a clan, which it said is associated with Hamas. Residents of Ein Deir Baha pushed back against that number. They said the clan includes at most 150 people and has no known reputation for radicalism. Al-Tamimi, whose family belongs to a different clan, suggested the operation served as election publicity.

By Sunday evening, all roads in and out of Hebron were closed to cars behind steel barriers. Only pedestrians could move through the city. Wasam Sadi, a delivery truck driver, arrived at a checkpoint with a smashed windshield and glass in his eyes. He said settlers had attacked him at a nearby junction. Mayor Yousef al-Jabari called the measures collective punishment. He noted that people had been dragged from their homes and that media were kept out of the district. Palestinians in the West Bank cannot vote on Tuesday, but the election outcome will affect their lives.