Immediate closure of Hebron and preparations for a total blockade of the West Bank. This is the very harsh response ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the armed attack this morning, Friday 23 October, on a checkpoint north of the Palestinian city: five Israelis were injured, two of them in critical condition, while the two attackers were killed. The Israeli army announced that it had launched operations in Hebron and other areas of the occupied territory.
The order came after a meeting of the prime minister with the military and intelligence leaders. “I have instructed the Israel Defense Forces and security forces to impose an immediate blockade on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a total blockade of all of Judea and Samaria starting today,” Netanyahu said, using the Israeli name for the West Bank. A distinction therefore emerges from the communications released: the closure of Hebron was announced as immediate, while for the entire territory the prime minister ordered a blockade to be put in place.
The Israeli Prime Minister: “We will enter the neighborhoods, we will search the houses one by one”
The response announced by Netanyahu goes beyond travel restrictions. The prime minister proposed extending the operations already conducted in the Palestinian refugee camps to the cities, with evacuations of residents and searches of homes.
“We will implement the offensive and effective model that we have applied in the refugee camps also within the cities: the IDF will enter the neighborhoods from which the attackers left, evacuate the residents, search the homes one by one and destroy the terrorist infrastructure,” he declared in a statement from his office. “We are ready for a large-scale operation in Judea and Samaria.”
In the same message Netanyahu addressed the Israeli settlers: “Resist on the front lines. You are an example for Israel. We will destroy the terrorist infrastructure, we will build the settlement infrastructure.”
The attack on the checkpoint near Hebron
The decision was triggered by a shooting at a checkpoint at a major road intersection north of Hebron in the southern West Bank. According to the agency’s reconstruction Afpwhose photographer witnessed the scene, two men dressed in black, armed respectively with an assault rifle and a pistol, opened fire on the soldiers. Both were killed in the ensuing firefight.
The Israeli authorities confirmed toAfp that the five wounded are all Israelis in their twenties, without specifying whether they are soldiers or civilians. According to Magen David Adom, the Israeli rescue service, two are in critical condition. Netanyahu claimed that the soldiers’ intervention prevented “a large-scale attack”.
The army reported being active at the homes of the attackers and other suspects in Hebron, as well as in additional areas of the West Bank. Hamas praised the attack, calling it a “heroic operation”, and called on Palestinians to “totally mobilise” and carry out similar actions. However, the movement did not claim responsibility for the shooting.
Pressure from the far right: “A campaign like in Gaza”
The attack comes a few days before Tuesday’s legislative elections, in the final phase of the electoral campaign. Netanyahu has ordered the cancellation of Likud meetings scheduled for Friday, while his main far-right allies have called for expanding the military response and striking the Palestinian National Authority.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a campaign in the West Bank “like in Gaza”, with the declared aim of “dismantling the Palestinian Authority, gathering weapons and eliminating terrorists”. He immediately ordered the demolition of some Palestinian buildings near the site of the attack, which were described as “illegal”.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who arrived on site, also called for measures against the Palestinian Authority. “We don’t have to wait for an October 7” to happen in the West Bank, he said. “This is where the next war will break out.”
A new escalation in an area already marked by violence
The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has long experienced growing instability. Hebron is one of the most sensitive points: the city is divided into two sectors, one under the control of the Palestinian authorities and the other under Israeli military control, where settler settlements are also found within the urban fabric.
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the start of the war in Gaza, violence has also intensified in this territory. According to AFP’s toll, based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 1,113 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, mostly by Israeli forces. Among these, the United Nations has counted 37 people killed by settlers. In the same period, according to Israeli data, at least 49 Israelis were killed, mostly in Palestinian attacks, but also during Israeli military operations.
In recent weeks, attacks by settlers against Palestinians and Palestinian property during the olive harvest have also multiplied, with even fatal incidents. The announcement of new operations in the cities a few days before the elections which could seal the fate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now part of this scenario.