Israeli Forces Raze a Whole Neighbourhood in Hebron, Driving Hundreds of Palestinian Families from Their Homes

Israeli troops have levelled an entire residential neighbourhood in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, driving hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in an operation launched after two Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack on a military checkpoint on Friday. Palestinian authorities have condemned the operation as collective punishment.

The Hebron municipality estimated that about 35 hectares (86 acres) in the district of Ein Deir Baha had been destroyed or marked for destruction, and that about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon. The whole city of some 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints at every point of entry.

Hebron's mayor, Yousef Zuhair al-Jabari, separately told Reuters that some 1,200 people had already been displaced and about another 1,300 were at risk of losing their homes. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Israeli plans to displace a further 2,500 people.

On Friday, two gunmen attacked an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron. After a gunfight lasting about 20 minutes, two Israeli soldiers were killed and three were injured, and the two gunmen were also killed. Ein Deir Baha, the focus of the demolitions, was alleged to be the home district of the two gunmen.

After the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to the site and vowed that Israel would ‘destroy this place’, and announced a closure of the West Bank. With him was the extreme-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who had himself filmed wearing body armour in front of a Palestinian building being demolished.

Smotrich said he had ordered ‘the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site’, and called for ‘a comprehensive military campaign … exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon’. The Israeli military said the operation in the Al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha areas, near the checkpoint at Hebron's entrance, was aimed at searching for militants and weapons.

Videos sent by a Hebron resident showed a substantial area of devastation, with every house over several blocks flattened. One video showed soldiers marking Palestinian houses with a sprayed black cross, another showed a bulldozer tearing down a stone wall on a hillside, and another showed a large residential building festooned with Israeli flags.

People said that building was the home of a prominent Hebron family that had been commandeered as a temporary military headquarters. A spokesperson for the Hebron municipality said about 300 families had been evicted. Some had taken refuge in the homes of friends and relatives, while the municipality had opened community halls and children's play areas to shelter others.

‘We are being collectively punished for something we neither did nor supported,’ Hebron civil rights activist Issa Amro said. ‘Our suffering is being turned into political material for Israel's elections, while innocent families pay the price.’ His sister's family was among the hundreds driven out of their homes.

Majdi Naser, one of those evicted, said: ‘We call on officials to stand by us, because we have nothing to do with any of this. There are children here. We are not involved in any crime. All of this is being done completely arbitrarily.’ Residents told Reuters the army had evicted many people who had no connection whatsoever with the attackers.

Al-Jabari said the army had destroyed shops, factories, homes and roads in Hebron, calling the measures disproportionate and unjustified. He said Tuesday's parliamentary election lay behind the operation; opinion polls suggest Netanyahu's right-wing coalition could lose its majority in that vote. Netanyahu and the hardline ministers in his government were trying to win as many settler votes as possible, he said.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a non-governmental organisation, said Israeli forces had arrested about 70 Palestinians on Friday and Saturday. Israeli officials made no comment on the arrests. The Israeli army was approached for comment on the operations and on videos showing extensive devastation.

‘We are talking about hundreds of families who left their homes because of this, and they are not at all connected to what happened yesterday,’ Amro said in a telephone interview. ‘It's a very big area and we don't know what's going on, whether it is only election propaganda or if it's a serious plan from decisions on what to do after the election.’ Residents of Hebron are now watching to see whether the evictions and demolitions spread further.