Netanyahu seals West Bank after deadly Hebron gun battle

Hebron — HEBRON — Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a full closure of the occupied West Bank and warned of a military operation on a scale unseen there since 1967, after two Palestinian gunmen and two Israeli soldiers were killed in a prolonged shoot-out near Hebron on Friday, four days before Israelis vote in a tight national election.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the two assailants opened fire on soldiers at a temporary checkpoint outside Hebron after failing to reach a nearby highway, where the military believes they had intended to attack civilians. A preliminary military investigation said the gunfight lasted more than 20 minutes, the Guardian reported.

An AFP photographer heading to another assignment witnessed the battle at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, seeing two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces before troops shot them dead. The army said two of its soldiers "fell in combat" and three others were wounded; rescuers had earlier said five people were wounded, two seriously, according to The Hindu.

Netanyahu said Hamas was "planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians" and announced troops would enter the attackers' neighbourhood, evacuate residents, search house to house and destroy "terrorist infrastructure" — a model, he said, used in northern West Bank refugee camps under the "Iron Wall" operation launched in January 2025, which the UN rights office said forcibly displaced tens of thousands. Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the Hebron attack as a "heroic operation" and called for more.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich went further, demanding a campaign "exactly like in Gaza" to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and seize weapons. Rights groups warned the government might use the attack to justify harsher measures and burnish security credentials before Tuesday's vote. Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now told Al Jazeera he expected house demolitions, curfews, arrests and possible settler revenge attacks.

The lockdown is the fourth imposed across the territory in a month. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the Gaza war began in October 2023, with settler violence surging during the olive harvest, outlets including the South China Morning Post noted.

For Hebron's Palestinians, the immediate question is how long the closure holds and which neighbourhood Israeli forces enter first. For Israel, it is whether the promised operation arrives before, or after, voters cast their ballots on Tuesday.