Netanyahu Orders Army to Prepare "Very Extensive" West Bank Operation
Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli army to prepare for a "very extensive" operation in the occupied West Bank, after an exchange of fire near a checkpoint in the city of Hebron left two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians dead, according to The Guardian.
The West Bank is a Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's military, said two armed Palestinians opened fire on soldiers at a temporary checkpoint outside Hebron on Friday after failing to reach a nearby highway. The IDF described the incident as a "terror attack" it had thwarted, and said it believes the two had intended to attack civilians on the highway. A preliminary military investigation found the gunfight lasted more than 20 minutes. Five Israelis were wounded, and two of them later died of their injuries.
Netanyahu held an emergency meeting of the security cabinet, a small group of senior ministers that makes security decisions, along with top military and security officials. His office said security forces had been instructed to cordon off Hebron, meaning seal it off, and to prepare for a full closure of the West Bank beginning on Friday, which would restrict movement across the territory.
Netanyahu said Israeli forces would enter the neighbourhood where the attackers lived and displace its residents, according to The Guardian. He said the military would go house to house and demolish homes. The Times of Israel reported that he said Israel would destroy the Hebron neighbourhood the gunmen came from. Haaretz reported that he promised a major IDF operation on a scale not seen since the Six-Day War, the 1967 conflict in which Israel captured the West Bank.
Netanyahu also said the military would apply in Hebron a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank. The UN human rights office has said that an earlier large-scale Israeli operation, named "Iron Wall" and launched in January 2025, forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people from several refugee camps.
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a military campaign in the West Bank "exactly like in Gaza."
