Israel Orders West Bank Crackdown After 2 Soldiers Killed in Hebron Attack

Israel has begun demolishing buildings and sealing off the West Bank city of Hebron after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military checkpoint on Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a military operation "such as has not been carried out since the Six Day War" — four days before Israelis vote in a national election.

The attack and the immediate response

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire near a military checkpoint outside Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, killing two soldiers — a squad commander and a combat soldier, according to the IDF — and lightly wounding three more. The two attackers were killed in the ensuing shootout. Within hours, Israel began demolishing buildings and forcing residents to evacuate a neighborhood in Hebron; a Reuters reporter documented bulldozers at work near the shooting site, while local residents said the homes had no connection to the attackers. CNN obtained video of an Israeli soldier telling residents of a housing complex: "you have five minutes to evacuate."

Netanyahu, visiting Hebron after the attack, announced sweeping measures: "We will evacuate the residents, we will go from house to house, we will also seize the weapons there, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed." The IDF imposed what it called "a full siege" on Hebron, and Netanyahu initially ordered a full closure of the West Bank starting Friday — later scaled back to a cordon around Hebron and the nearby city of Halhul that may extend to other areas. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had ordered the immediate demolition of Palestinian buildings near the attack site, while far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority entirely.

"Not seen since the Six Day War"

Netanyahu's most striking pledge was about scale: "The defence minister and I are considering a very extensive IDF operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since the Six Day War," he said, referring to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. He said the military would apply the model used in the northern West Bank refugee camps in early 2025 — the "Iron Wall" operation that, according to the UN rights office, forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people, most of whom have still not been allowed to return.

The international reaction was swift. The UN said it was "extremely alarmed" by the intensifying violence, with Secretary-General António Guterres condemning both the attack and what the UN human rights office called "yet another episode in a never-ending stream of suffocating measures," UN News reports. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem condemned the plan outright: "Israel is announcing its next crimes in advance," its executive director told CNN. Hamas praised the shooting but did not claim responsibility.

An election four days away

The attack comes just days before Israel holds elections on Tuesday — the first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack — with Netanyahu campaigning as a security hardliner and final polls pointing to a stalemate. The West Bank has been a recurring flashpoint this month: an earlier report covered the attack on diplomats in Taybeh, and the wider regional escalation continues in Yemen. Whether Friday's crackdown stays confined to Hebron or becomes the large-scale operation Netanyahu is threatening will be one of the first tests of whatever government emerges from Tuesday's vote.