Overview
- A shooting at a military checkpoint on Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers prompted Israeli forces to launch a wide operation in Hebron focused on house-to-house searches, evacuations and demolitions.
- Authorities have sealed Hebron and imposed movement restrictions while carrying out raids across the West Bank, with Israeli officials reporting operations in hundreds of locations and dozens of arrests.
- Estimates of people displaced vary by source from several hundred up to roughly 2,200, as municipal officials describe entire neighbourhoods cleared, homes and businesses bulldozed, and some properties repurposed for military use.
- Palestinian officials and rights groups call the measures collective punishment and have appealed for international intervention, citing disrupted access to health care, education and basic services.
- Israeli leaders frame the campaign as a security response and point to previous large-scale campaigns as models, a posture that could shape voter perceptions in days before the national election and prolong restrictions on Palestinian movement and livelihoods.