Hebron operation displaces Palestinian families after two soldiers killed

Israeli forces closed gates and checkpoints to Palestinian drivers around Hebron on Saturday, 24 October, and carried out searches and demolitions in the occupied West Bank city. The operation followed a shooting near Yehuda Junction on Friday in which two Israeli soldiers were killed and three lightly wounded, according to the military. It said its troops also killed the two Palestinian gunmen.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to evacuate residents from the neighbourhood where the gunmen lived and search it house by house. He separately spoke of a much wider West Bank operation, but said its timing had yet to be decided. The measures already under way in Hebron do not mean that larger campaign has begun.

In Deir Bahha, residents left after Israeli evacuation warnings, the Associated Press reported. CNN said it obtained video of a soldier ordering people out of a housing complex within five minutes, and reported that demolitions had begun in the Farsh al-Hawa area. Israeli authorities said structures being demolished near the shooting site lacked permits and posed security risks. Residents interviewed by Reuters said many people with no connection to the gunmen had also been forced out.

Hebron municipal officials estimated that 200 to 300 families had been displaced overnight from Deir Bahha and four surrounding neighbourhoods, according to AP. Reuters reported a municipal estimate of about 1,200 people by Saturday; Palestinian news agency WAFA put the figure at about 1,500 since Friday. By Saturday evening, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said about 2,000 people had been displaced. The estimates refer to different times and, in AP’s case, count families rather than individuals.

The military described residents passing through screened exits as people who had requested evacuation. That account sits alongside the warnings and the recorded order to leave. Katz said residents would not be allowed back to their neighbourhood until the operation there was finished; he gave no date for their return.