Palestinians in Hebron are ‘living in fear’ with the city closed, while Israeli forces arrest dozens across the West Bank.
Israel has imposed a lockdown and displaced thousands of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron, as the military conducts raids in the occupied West Bank following the deaths of two Israeli soldiers.
This comes as the Palestinian Authority on Saturday called for international pressure on Israel to protect Hebron’s residents, who said soldiers announced forced evacuation orders over loudspeakers late at night, leaving them with no time to prepare and few places to move to.
Hebron’s Mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari told Al Jazeera on Saturday that 2,200 people had been forced from their homes by Israeli troops and raids.
Later on Saturday, Israel’s defence minister confirmed that “about 2,000” people have been displaced. “They will not be allowed to return to their neighbourhood until we’ve finished dealing with all the Hamas issues in Hebron,” Israel Katz said in an interview with public broadcaster Kan.
Hundreds of Israeli raids have taken place since Friday’s attack by two Palestinian gunmen on an Israeli army reserve base, which killed two Israeli soldiers. The two Palestinians were also killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a “full lockdown” of the occupied West Bank following the attack.
Mayor al-Ja’bari told Al Jazeera that Hebron residents can neither enter nor leave the city.
Israeli soldiers also fired a stun grenade at Al Jazeera journalists near the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint in Hebron, as the journalists documented an Israeli operation to bulldoze homes and vehicles in the area.
The targeted areas include Jenin and Nablus in the north; Ramallah, el-Bireh, Birzeit, and occupied East Jerusalem in the centre; and Bethlehem in the south.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said Israeli forces arrested about 70 Palestinians in the raids.
Raids in several towns in the Jenin governorate on Saturday evening injured two people, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Sources told Wafa that two others were injured in separate incidents southeast and east of Jenin.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said early on Sunday that it had treated nine people, including six children, for “suffocation” after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas in Halhul, north of Hebron.
According to a statement early on Sunday, the Israeli military will bar Palestinian workers from entering most areas of the West Bank on Sunday through Monday, and a full closure of crossings into and out of the West Bank will be enforced on Tuesday, the day of the Israeli elections.
The Palestinian Authority, which governs some of the West Bank, called Israel’s actions “collective punishment”, citing the demolition of homes, forced displacement of entire neighbourhoods, and the “closure and siege of Palestinian cities”, and urged the international community to intervene, Wafa reported.
Meanwhile, Hamas said in a statement that the “campaigns and escalations carried out by the occupation and its criminal settlers against our people will only fuel further outrage”.
About 200,000 Palestinians live in the city of Hebron, and a further 600,000 in Hebron governorate, making it the West Bank’s most populous governorate.
The 800,000 Palestinians in the Hebron governorate are “now under siege, with all entrances and exits closed since morning”, Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist and political analyst based in Hebron, told Al Jazeera.
“Inside the city, there is no safe place for anyone to hide… the city is really in fear,” Amro said.
Israeli politicians are trying to “capitalise” on the attack ahead of parliamentary elections on October 27, Al Jazeera’s West Bank correspondent Nour Odeh said.
“Netanyahu, his Likud party, and his allies in this right-wing coalition are behind in the polls”, said Odeh, so, in response, they are “trying to put up a brave front, saying they’re combating Palestinians”.
Just days before Israelis are set to vote, Netanyahu avoided answering whether he planned to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, but said that a “big surprise” awaits the organisation.
Speaking late on Friday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was deeply concerned by the closures and reports of home demolitions in Hebron.
“Those closures severely restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement, access to basic services and livelihoods,” Guterres said.
Mayy El Sheikh, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, said Israel’s Hebron operation was “yet another episode in a never-ending stream of suffocating measures making life more and more unbearable for Palestinians”.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem, meanwhile, warned that Israel’s actions amount to “collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.
Israel has imposed a lockdown across the occupied West Bank after a shooting near Hebron killed two Israeli soldiers.
Israeli military raid targets at least 15 towns in the northern West Bank, including Nablus and Jenin.
Already struggling after losing homes to Israeli military operations, Palestinians face hardship as WFP halves aid.
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