Hundreds of Palestinian Families Displaced as Israeli Forces Demolish Buildings in Hebron, Officials Say

The Israeli military has begun a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, demolishing homes and businesses and displacing hundreds of families, according to local officials. Footage shared online showed damage from Israeli bulldozers, with at least one entire street appearing to have been leveled.

The army has also sealed off the city, sharply limiting the movement of its 200,000 residents. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately answer a request for comment from the BBC. In a statement on social media, it said it had dozens of targets across the West Bank and that operations would continue for several days.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the operation on Friday after two Israeli soldiers were killed by two Palestinian gunmen in an attack on a checkpoint. Three other soldiers were wounded, and both gunmen were killed. Netanyahu said buildings near the site of the attack, along with the neighbourhoods the gunmen came from, would be "destroyed".

Demolishing the homes of Palestinians suspected of attacks on Israelis is a common practice among Israeli forces in the West Bank. Israeli rights groups have criticised it as collective punishment. Netanyahu compared the Hebron operation to earlier campaigns in Palestinian refugee camps in the north of the territory, where the military destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced tens of thousands of people in 2025.

Hebron's Mayor Youssef al-Jaabari said the operation was focused on the Ein Deir Baha and Farsh al-Hawa neighbourhoods and had hit homes, businesses, industrial sites and infrastructure. He said dozens of families had been made to spend the night outdoors, some of them told to leave without their vehicles, while houses were marked for demolition with spray paint. He believes the military intends to displace 2,500 people from roughly 0.35 sq km of urban land. The city's governor and deputy mayor said at least 200 families had been displaced.

The attack came with Israel's general election four days away. Netanyahu, whose campaign rests on a promise of security, cancelled his party's campaign events for Friday morning and travelled to Hebron wearing protective armour, posting a video from the scene. "We will evacuate the residents, go house to house, remove the weapons we find there, and deal with and destroy all terrorist infrastructure," he said.

He also said he had reviewed plans for the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967, without saying when it might happen. It is unclear whether the Hebron operation is part of those plans. In an interview with Israel's i24 television channel released on Saturday, he threatened "a very big surprise" for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the territory.

The Palestinian Authority called for "urgent international action that went beyond condemnation" to prevent further forced displacement. Within the Israeli government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged a campaign in the West Bank "exactly like in Gaza or Lebanon", while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled.

Speaking to journalists, Mayor al-Jaabari said the operation was "driven by the elections" and that Netanyahu and his ministers were trying to win the votes of the far right and of settlers.