HEBRON: Israel’s military launched an operation in the occupied West Bank on Friday that it said would last several days and include searches and building demolitions, after gunmen killed two soldiers days before Israeli elections in which security has been a key focus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a tight race to retain his position in Tuesday’s vote, having campaigned on promises to keep Israelis safe. He and his right-wing allies visited the scene of the attack to pledge a tougher response to militancy in the West Bank.
Security forces were searching locations and questioning suspects to “locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the Hebron area, from which the attackers were believed to have emerged, according to a joint statement from the Israeli military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.
Forces were also “demolishing illegal structures that could pose a security threat at the site of the encounter”, they said, adding that “counterterrorism operations” were underway at dozens of locations.
The operation “is expected to continue for several days”, the statement, released late on Friday, said.
Militant group Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised Friday’s fatal attack on two Israeli soldiers as a “heroic operation” and called on its supporters to carry out further attacks.
An AFP photographer based in Hebron, who was heading to another assignment, witnessed a gun battle erupt at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint between Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle.
Israeli forces eventually shot dead the two attackers.
Netanyahu credited the soldiers with having “prevented what could have been a major attack” and ordered a lockdown in the West Bank.
During a visit to Hebron, Netanyahu said he and Defence Minister Israel Katz were “considering a very extensive IDF operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since” the 1967 war.
The first step would involve Israeli forces “enter(ing) the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure”, he said.
The military would follow a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, he said. The area was the scene of a large-scale operation launched in January 2025 that the United Nations said forcibly displaced thousands of people.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from carrying out “plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through a spokesman, expressed concern over Israeli closures affecting Palestinian livelihoods and called for an end to violence by all sides.
Exactly like Gaza
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position within the defence ministry, called for a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza”.
He said the authorities were “sending an unequivocal message to our enemies: if you mess with the Jews, you will pay a very painful price”.
National Security Minister and far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir said the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority must be dismantled.
“It is impossible for there to be an authority within Judea and Samaria that incites murder, calls for murder, and works for murder,” he told reporters.
There is no evidence that the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, was connected to Friday’s attack.
Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich are prominent supporters of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded under Netanyahu’s government but are illegal under international law.
Netanyahu vowed to “pursue Hamas terrorists” everywhere, adding: “You have no place to hide.”
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group’s October 7, 2023 attack, which killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. It was the deadliest day in the country’s history.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief and Netanyahu’s main rival in the upcoming election, said he was praying for soldiers wounded in Friday’s shooting.
The operation comes amid rising tensions in the West Bank, including attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian olive harvesters.
According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,117 Palestinians in the territory since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Israeli figures show that at least 51 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations over the same period.