The Israeli military forced around 1,200 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian official said, a day after a Palestinian attack killed two Israeli soldiers, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday the military would launch a large-scale operation after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military checkpoint near the city; the Israeli military said the gunmen were shot dead. The military said the operation in the Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods near the checkpoint at the entrance of Hebron was to search for militants and weapons, and that it would carry out demolitions.

Source: Reuters via WTBX, Oct 24, 2026

The Associated Press, reporting separately on Saturday, said Israel had imposed widespread closures and displaced residents in Hebron. WAFA, the Palestinian news outlet, said Israeli troops forced dozens of residents to evacuate their homes and closed all entrances and roads leading into Hebron, AP reported. Up to 300 families left Deir Baha, a residential area on one of the city's hillsides, and the two adjacent neighbourhoods, according to a Saturday morning tally from Hebron's municipality, and AP reporters saw Israeli flags draped over a home seized for military use in Deir Baha after the army ordered the evacuation. Israel's army did not respond to AP's questions about the operation on Saturday; on Friday it said its forces had begun conducting what it called precise, targeted and thorough searches in the area of Hebron from which the two gunmen had operated.

Source: Associated Press via Tri-City Record, Oct 24, 2026

The Palestinian Authority criticised the operation as a collective punishment. Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, the head of Hebron's municipality, said the military had demolished shops, factories, homes and roads in Hebron and called the response disproportionate and unjustified. Residents told Reuters the military expelled many people with no connection to the Palestinian attackers, and that they saw Israeli soldiers marking homes with a black X after their occupants had been forced to leave; it was not immediately clear what the mark meant. One displaced resident, Majdi Nasser, told Reuters: "We are calling on officials to stand by us because we are not involved in any of this. There are children. We are isolated; we don't do anything. This is all arbitrary."

Source: Reuters via WTBX, Oct 24, 2026

Across the West Bank, Israel has blocked the entrances to most Palestinian cities and towns, severely curtailing freedom of movement, Reuters reported. Yousef Mur, a resident of the town of Yatta, told Reuters the closures meant he was unable to reach Jerusalem with his daughter for her cancer treatment, and that stun grenades were fired towards people trying to cross. Al-Jabari also said the operations were motivated by Tuesday's parliamentary elections, in which opinion polls show Netanyahu's right-wing coalition may lose its majority — that motive is the municipality head's allegation, not an established fact. Netanyahu's government has presided over a rapid expansion of settlements, which UN bodies and most countries deem illegal, though Israel disputes this, Reuters noted.

Source: Reuters via WTBX, Oct 24, 2026

Saturday's operation follows Friday's closure order, reported here: Netanyahu orders Hebron cordon and preparations for a full West Bank closure