Israeli forces have demolished Palestinian homes and businesses in Hebron and forcibly displaced around 2,500 people, according to Palestinian rights monitors, as a sweeping military crackdown entered its third day on Sunday with further raids and arrests across the southern occupied West Bank.
Bulldozers have torn through residential and commercial areas, with footage showing homes reduced to rubble across several blocks. The demolitions follow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to destroy the neighbourhood from which two Palestinian gunmen allegedly came after an attack on an Israeli military checkpoint on Friday.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), citing preliminary estimates from Hebron municipality, said approximately 500 families comprising around 2,500 people had been forced from their homes in an area spanning 350 dunums, or 35 hectares. Israeli forces have sealed the area and continued house searches, leaving displaced residents uncertain when they will be allowed to return.
The operation has targeted Ein Deir Baha and surrounding neighbourhoods, alongside homes, businesses and industrial facilities in Farsh al-Hawa.
PCHR documented the demolition of a three-storey house, a commercial facility selling car parts and the walls surrounding a tile and ceramics business’s yard. The organisation said the house was demolished despite its owner having obtained an interim court order following an earlier demolition notice.
Families were ordered out over military loudspeakers late on Friday, according to PCHR. Soldiers searched residents and vehicles at checkpoints as they fled, while some families sought shelter with relatives. One displaced resident told the organisation that soldiers had not said when his family could return.
The destruction has accompanied a broader closure of Hebron, with Israeli forces blocking entrances and restricting movement between the city and surrounding towns and villages. Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari said that the city and several neighbouring villages were under a complete blockade.
Raids and arrests spread across Hebron
Israeli forces arrested 20 Palestinians in the latest wave of raids across Hebron, as the military expanded its incursions into the city and surrounding towns.
Overnight on Saturday, soldiers raided homes in most of Hebron’s neighbourhoods and "abused" their occupants, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Further raids were reported in the nearby towns of Dura, Yatta, as-Samu and Tarqumiya, where residents were forcibly taken from their homes.
On Sunday morning, Israeli forces fired tear gas during raids on al-Fawwar refugee camp and the town of Taffuh, both near Hebron.
Visiting Hebron on Friday with Defence Minister Israel Katz, Netanyahu pledged to destroy and transform the neighbourhood from which the attackers allegedly came.
"First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely," he said. "We are going to implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds."
His remarks referred to military operations in northern West Bank refugee camps, including Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, where tens of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 2025. Katz explicitly linked the Hebron operation to those campaigns, saying: "The Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron."
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a defence ministry role overseeing civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank, called for a military campaign "exactly like in Gaza or Lebanon". He said he had personally ordered the immediate demolition of a row of structures near the site of Friday’s shooting, describing them as illegally built.
The escalation comes days before Israel’s general election on Tuesday, 27 October, when the military says it will close all land crossings with the occupied West Bank.
Restrictions announced on Saturday also bar Palestinian workers from entering Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jordan Valley, with limited exceptions before a broader closure takes effect on election day. Tuesday’s restrictions will include industrial zones.