250,000 residents in Hebron face new siege order

Benjamin Netanyahu declared a siege of Hebron and the neighboring town of Halhul on Friday. He made the announcement following a shooting incident at a checkpoint outside the city where two Israeli soldiers died and three others were wounded. The Prime Minister stated that residents living in the specific neighborhoods where the gunmen originated would be forced to leave their homes. He also promised a campaign of mass demolitions in those areas.

The first structural removal began within hours of the initial firefight. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich filmed a bulldozer tearing down a Palestinian home near the shooting site. He posted the footage online while ministers campaigned ahead of Tuesday's elections. Smotrich said the building lacked permits and that its destruction was intended to create deterrence and exact a price. No official link was established between the building owners and the attackers.

Legal challenges to the demolitions arrived quickly. The Israeli high court issued a temporary order to halt the work. Human rights lawyer Mohammed Dahleh filed the urgent petition on behalf of two factory owners. He argued that the actions breached international law regarding collective punishment. Dahleh described the move as an attempt to copy illegal practices used in Gaza within the heart of the West Bank.

Michael Sfard, a leading Israeli lawyer, called Smotrich's video a direct admission that the demolitions amounted to collective punishment. He noted that deterrence has been a justification for such punishment since antiquity. Defence Minister Israel Katz expanded on the plans, promising further forced displacement. He compared the upcoming treatment of Hebron to the Jenin refugee camp, where nearly 20,000 people have been displaced. Katz said every clan neighborhood from which terrorists emerged would be evacuated.

The Israeli military stated that two men armed with an assault rifle and a handgun carried out the attack. They were driving a vehicle with Israeli number plates when soldiers stopped them at a temporary checkpoint. Both gunmen were killed after a 20 minute gunfight. An AFP photographer witnessed the exchange while traveling to another assignment. He saw two Palestinian men firing at Israeli forces with a handgun and an automatic rifle.

Conspiracy theories linking the photographer to the gunmen spread among prominent Israelis. The Foreign Press Association called the claims dangerous and defamatory. The association described the photographer as a longtime professional who documented events in keeping with his duties. This incident followed a week in which settlers severely injured photographer Heidi Levine while she documented attacks on Palestinians harvesting olives. Since October 2023, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu said plans were drawn up for the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967. He stated no date had been set for the operation but confirmed it was on the way. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir traveled to Hebron on Friday. He demanded the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and tighter limits on Palestinian movement. Hebron remains the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, with a population of about 250,000.