2,000 Residents Displaced in Hebron After Checkpoint Shooting

The displacement of nearly 2,000 residents in Hebron has turned the West Bank’s largest city into a focal point for Israel’s election campaign.

The shift followed a Friday gun attack at an Israeli military checkpoint that killed two soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the site by television, promising swift retribution. Their coalition is narrowly trailing with two days of campaigning remaining. Netanyahu warned of military operations on a scale the West Bank has not seen in nearly 60 years.

The city, home to 250,000 people, was sealed off within hours of the attack. The Farsh al-Hawa neighborhood, closest to the site, was flattened. By Sunday morning, an industrial area containing car workshops and a large ceramics plant was reduced to rubble. In the Ein Deir Baha district, military forces emptied homes allegedly belonging to the Jaba'a clan, from which the attackers were said to come.

Fahed Ahmaro, the imam of the local mosque, was woken around midnight by loudspeakers on patrolling vehicles ordering homeowners to leave for their safety. Thirty members of his family lived in the house. He moved his frail mother and grandchildren to his daughter's home. As he returned for belongings, a neighbor called to say the army had blown up the gates. Ahmaro stated, "You don't know what you have until you lose it."

The Hebron municipality reported that 370 families were displaced by the sweep. The Israeli army stated that residents left voluntarily and that civilians were permitted to evacuate temporarily. Ahmaro rejected this account, asking, "Never, never, never. Why should I leave my house?" Abdul Halim al-Tamimi, 77, said the military arrived at 1:30 a.m. and gave his family 10 minutes to leave. An intelligence officer warned they would be displaced as in Gaza if they refused. The family left at 3 a.m. Saturday. By Sunday morning, their villa was draped in Israeli flags and used as an army headquarters.

The army described the Jaba'a clan as associated with Hamas and said about 2,000 locals belonged to it. Residents of Ein Deir Baha countered that the clan numbers at most 150 people and has no known reputation for radicalism. Tamimi said his family is from a different clan and suggested the operation serves election publicity.

By Sunday evening, all roads in and out of Hebron remained closed to cars behind steel barriers. Delivery driver Wasam Sadi arrived at a checkpoint with a smashed windshield and glass in his eyes after settlers attacked him at a junction. Mayor Yousef al-Jabari called the measures collective punishment. Palestinians in the West Bank cannot vote on Tuesday, but the outcome could affect their lives.