HEBRON: The Israeli military forced about 1,500 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron after sealing off two neighborhoods, with 1,000 more facing displacement as part of a large-scale operation that continued a day after Palestinian gunmen shot two soldiers dead at a military checkpoint.
Yousef Al-Jaabari, Hebron’s mayor, said about 200 families were displaced on Saturday as Israel imposed sweeping closures and ordered residents to leave the densely populated Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighborhoods near the military checkpoint at the entrance of Hebron where the attack took place.
The two areas comprise 495 residential units, housing about 2,500 residents, according to the mayor, who warned more families were at risk of losing their homes as the military operation continued.
“Women, children and elderly people were left on the streets of Hebron with nowhere to go after being forced from their homes,” Al-Jaabari told Arab News.
“Those who remain are trapped inside the neighborhoods, with Israeli forces ordering them to leave. We cannot reach them.”
He added that troops had marked evacuated homes and distributed notices ordering the remaining residents to leave without their vehicles.
Israeli forces have closed all entrances to Hebron, and demolished shops, factories, homes and roads at the western entrance to the city, the mayor said.
Several homes inside the city have also been seized and turned into military barracks used as field interrogation centers against residents who were forced to leave their properties.
The operation began on Friday after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military checkpoint near Hebron, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding three others. The Israeli military said both gunmen were shot dead.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently ordered a large-scale military operation in Hebron and preparations for wider closures across the occupied West Bank, vowing to evacuate residents and conduct house-to-house searches for weapons and militants.
Within hours of the attack, Israeli forces demolished a residential building with three apartments and destroyed commercial shops in Farsh Al-Hawa, west of Hebron, raiding homes and carrying out arrests.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society on Friday said about 70 Palestinians were detained in large-scale raids across the occupied West Bank following the attack in Hebron. Israeli forces have also closed entrances to several Palestinian towns and cities, severely restricting movement across the occupied territory in response to the attack.
Al-Jaabari said the municipality had opened temporary shelters for displaced families from Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha, and deployed emergency teams across the city to respond to the needs of residents.
However, the closures have made it difficult for municipal workers to reach residents still trapped in the affected neighborhoods.
Al-Jaabari noted the challenges facing the municipality in delivering services, essential supplies and medicines to residents in the besieged areas, as well as ensuring aid reaches those displaced.
He criticized the Israel’s actions as “collective punishment” against Palestinians, accusing the government of using the checkpoint attack to justify the displacement of Palestinian families.
“This is an attempt to force people from their homes and their land,” he said. “But we will never leave.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Friday called for urgent international pressure on Israel to protect Palestinians, warning that the forced evacuation and destruction of neighborhoods in Hebron threatened to repeat the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba, but through new military tactics.
The ministry accused Israel of pursuing political gains at the expense of Palestinian rights amid its election campaign.
“Confronting the growing threats of forced displacement and destruction requires urgent international action that goes beyond condemnation to concrete and deterrent measures,” it said.
Al-Jaabari also accused Netanyahu and his right-wing government of exploiting operations in Hebron to win votes among Israeli settlers ahead of parliamentary elections on Tuesday.
“Netanyahu knows his days in power are numbered. He is using Palestinian homes and land, and the Ibrahimi Mosque, as a free election campaign to win votes,” Al-Jaabari told Arab News.
His remarks came amid calls by far-right Israeli ministers for a broader military campaign in the occupied West Bank, with some urging the government to adopt tactics used during the war in Gaza under the pretense of combating terrorism.
Al-Jaabari rejected comparisons between the two territories, arguing that the scale and organization of armed activity in the occupied West Bank were different.
“There are no organized armed groups in the West Bank; only individuals with weapons. There are no training camps like those in Gaza, nor is there armed resistance on the same scale as in Gaza,” Al-Jaabari told Arab News.
“The occupation is using these claims as a pretext to destroy the West Bank.”
Meanwhile on Friday night, Israeli settlers erected a tent west of Hebron, in Khirbet Hamasa, in an apparent attempt to establish a new outpost on Palestinian-owned land, despite an Israeli court order prohibiting them from entering the area following previous attempts to seize it, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.