The Israeli army continued a large-scale offensive in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, the Hebron municipality said in a statement reported by Anadolu via Middle East Monitor. The municipality said 4,969 Palestinians from 780 families have been forcibly displaced from the Deir Bahha and Al-Jilda areas since the military campaign began on Friday.

Source: Anadolu via Middle East Monitor

The figures have risen day by day in the official Palestinian counts. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Monday that about 3,971 people from 619 families had been displaced, and the United Nations said on October 26 that more than 3,000 Palestinians had been forced from their homes by the operation. UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned that collective punishment was a grave violation of international law and that threats to empty entire neighbourhoods raised serious concerns about ethnic cleansing — characterisations Israel disputes.

Residents protested the operation in Hebron on Tuesday, October 27, as Israelis voted in a national election, according to reports of the demonstration. Israeli troops fired a stun grenade to disperse the crowd, with the military saying the measure was necessary for its operation to continue. The operation followed an attack on October 23 at a checkpoint near the city in which, reports said, two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian gunmen.

The Israeli military said on October 25 that troops would carry out demolitions in the affected area, and said soldiers had not found weapons during searches of homes, according to the protest-day reporting. In earlier statements reported during the operation, the army said civilians who wished to evacuate were permitted to temporarily leave the area. Residents and Palestinian officials, by contrast, described families being ordered out of their homes — the two accounts remain contested, and Awaaz Punjab presents each side's figures and claims with their source attached.