Israel prepares full West Bank lockdown after Hebron shooting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered preparations for a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank after a shooting in Hebron killed two soldiers on Friday.
Two Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops at a checkpoint in northern Hebron early in the day.
The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed and three others wounded.
The two Palestinians were shot dead after a 20-minute exchange of fire. Israeli media said the men belonged to the same family in Hebron.
Netanyahu said he ordered Hebron’s closure, alongside preparations for a full lockdown across the West Bank.
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In a video filmed in Hebron, he also threatened to destroy the neighbourhood from which the two Palestinians came and expel its residents.
“First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” he said.
“We will evacuate the residents, we will go house to house, we will remove the weapons there as well, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed.”
Netanyahu said the operation would mirror Israeli military assaults on refugee camps in the northern West Bank in January 2025.
Those assaults on camps in Jenin and Tulkarem have displaced at least 40,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli army said it had placed Hebron “under a cordon” and launched what it described as “offensive counterterrorism operations”.
Palestinian media reported Israeli raids in Dura, south of Hebron, during which Israeli forces shot and wounded at least one Palestinian man and arrested others.
Israeli forces also closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and expelled its staff and custodians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.
The ministry condemned the move as “a flagrant and ongoing violation of the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and freedom of worship, as guaranteed by international conventions and laws”.
The Ibrahimi Mosque, an endangered Palestinian World Heritage Site recognised by Unesco, has faced mounting Israeli restrictions in recent months. These include barring Muslim worshippers, restricting the call to prayer and facilitating settler incursions.
Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir described Friday’s shooting as “serious” and said troops had “prevented an even more serious attack” by killing the two attackers.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir seized on the incident to renew his call for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“This incident once again illustrates what I have been saying in the Cabinet for four years: this entity known as the Palestinian Authority must be dismantled,” he said on X.
“We must dismantle it and put an end to the shared roads used by Israelis and residents of the Palestinian Authority.
"The freedom of movement of Palestinian Authority residents is less important than our right to live.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed the call, demanding a full-scale military campaign across the occupied West Bank.
“There is no alternative to a full-scale military campaign in Judea and Samaria to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, collect weapons and eliminate terrorist militants. Exactly as in Gaza and Lebanon,” he said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
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