Israel launches West Bank operation after attack days before election

HEBRON: Israel's military launched an operation in the occupied West Bank on Friday (Oct 23) it said would last several days and include searches and building demolitions, after gunmen killed two soldiers days ahead of Israeli elections in which security has been a key focus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a tight race to keep his job in Tuesday's vote, having campaigned on promises to keep Israelis safe, and he and his right-wing allies visited the scene of the attack to pledge an even harder line on West Bank militancy.

Security forces were searching targets and questioning suspects to "locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure" in the Hebron area from where they said the attackers had emerged, according to a joint statement from the Israeli military and 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 supporters to carry out more.

A Hebron-based AFP photographer heading to another assignment witnessed the gun battle break out at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint between the soldiers and two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle.

Israeli forces eventually shot dead the attackers.

Netanyahu credited the soldiers with having "prevented what could have been a major attack", and ordered a lockdown in the West Bank.

Visiting 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 see Israeli forces "enter 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 apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, he said, the scene of a large-scale operation launched in January 2025 that the United Nations said forcibly displaced thousands.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from "plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres through a spokesman voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on 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 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 firebrand 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.

No evidence suggests 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 especially vocal champions of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have proliferated 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 obliterate the group in the wake of the Oct 7, 2023 attack that resulted in 1,221 deaths, according to an AFP tally from official Israeli figures, in what was the deadliest day in the country's history.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief who is Netanyahu's top rival in the upcoming vote, said he was praying for soldiers wounded in Friday's shooting.

The operation comes as tensions soar in the West Bank, including over 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 start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli figures show at least 51 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.