Israel presses ahead with West Bank army operation days before election

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israel pressed ahead with a major military operation in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, carrying out arrests and demolitions a day after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron , the territory's largest city.

The operation took place in cities across the West Bank just days before Israelis vote on whether to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in power. It was particularly sweeping in the Hebron area. Israeli troops took positions throughout the city and sealed it off from the rest of the territory for a second day, closing gates and checkpoints to Palestinian drivers.

In Deir Bahha, the suspected gunmen’s neighborhood, Israeli forces warned residents to evacuate overnight. Fahed Ahmro, a 51-year-old city worker, fled to a relative’s home after loudspeaker warnings and sirens woke him. He had lived through military raids before, he said, but never one that left him so uncertain about whether his family would be able to return.

“In the past, when we were ordered or asked to leave for a few minutes or a few hours, our homes would be searched, and then we would return," he said. "But now, our homes and entire neighborhoods are being evacuated. It’s a very difficult situation."

The two soldiers killed Friday marked six Israelis killed this year in the increasingly violent West Bank. Including the suspected gunmen, 112 Palestinians have been killed over the same time period, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israel’s military said it found weapons in the gunmen’s car and that they were likely planning to attack Israeli civilians before being stopped at the checkpoint. The military said Friday that troops were “conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches” in the area where the gunmen operated.

The shootout also provoked outrage among Israel’s leading politicians and brought Netanyahu and three members of his right-wing government to the site of the attack, where they vowed to respond forcefully.

“We warned a few weeks ago about attempts by our enemies to harm us, our citizens, and our soldiers ahead of the election,” Netanyahu said. “We will act to destroy this place.”

In a statement posted on X, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stood in front of a bulldozer near the site of the shootout and promised Israel would tear down Palestinian buildings constructed without permits in the area. He made no claim of a connection between the owners of those buildings and the gunmen.

"We will remove quite a few buildings, making it clear that terrorism targeting Israeli citizens carries a very heavy price," he said. "This is just the beginning."

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz made similar promises at the crime scene. Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Katz are all ministers in Netanyahu’s current government. Showing strength on security is central to their campaigns ahead of the Oct. 27 election.

Amjad Iraqi, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the promises reflected how politicians were working to demonstrate how tough they would be toward Palestinians ahead of the Oct. 27 election. Israel’s right wing, he added, has historically emphasized security threats as part of their case for remaining in power.

“For a lot of the far right, every attack is an opportunity to project strength, send a message and reassure settlers that the state will protect them and advance their goals,” Iraqi said.

Roughly 3 million Palestinians and 540,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Hebron is one of its most tense cities and the only place where Jewish settlers live in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian area under Israeli military protection.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported more than 70 arrests throughout the West Bank on Saturday and drivers reported widespread closures blocking them from exiting cities onto the West Bank's major highways.

At military gates on Hebron's outskirts, taxis waited to pick up families and workers crossing on foot. People passed sacks of flour and gas canisters through the gates, while an elderly man pushed his wife in a wheelchair through an opening beside one of them.

Reem Al Jiyawi waited behind a closed gate north of the city early Saturday, trying to take her 11-year-old daughter to a cancer-related doctor appointment at a hospital. Unable to drive directly, she had her husband drop her at the gate so she could cross on foot and take a shared taxi on the other side.

Hebron municipal officials said between 200 and 300 families fled Deir Bahha and four surrounding neighborhoods overnight, most going to other parts of the city.

Ahmro, the city worker, said he left behind not just his possessions, but the life he had built, his work and his dreams for the future.

“Home is home," he said. “Everything was comfortable there. You can’t feel that comfortable anywhere else.”