Israel Launches Major West Bank Operation Near Hebron

Israel's military launched a major operation in the occupied West Bank on Friday, October 23, 2026, involving mass arrests, home demolitions and the forced displacement of residents, according to Al Jazeera. The operation came after an attack at an Israeli military checkpoint near Hebron, a city in the southern West Bank, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed.

Two suspected Palestinian gunmen involved in the checkpoint attack were shot dead. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then ordered a full lockdown of the West Bank, meaning a complete restriction on movement across the territory. He said Israeli forces would go house-to-house in the Hebron neighbourhood the suspected attackers came from, adding: "We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely."

Late on Friday, the military announced a "counterterrorism" operation in the Hebron area. It involves soldiers, police and other security agents and would last "several days." The military said actions would also take place in "dozens" of other areas across the West Bank.

By Saturday morning, Israeli forces had raided at least 15 towns in the northern West Bank, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya, and had arrested dozens of Palestinians. In Hebron, Israeli bulldozers wrecked a three-storey building. Hundreds of Palestinian families were ordered to leave their homes in the Ein Deir Bahha area and its surroundings.

Netanyahu said Israeli troops would carry out "extensive waves of arrests" and pursue Hamas fighters "wherever they are and at all times," according to Al Jazeera. Hamas is a Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem warned that the planned offensive amounts to "collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes." Collective punishment is a penalty imposed on a whole community, rather than on individuals accused of wrongdoing.

The Channel NewsAsia report describes the October 2026 operation as involving searches and demolitions.