Hebron: Army Sweep Displaces 2,000 After Checkpoint Shooting

Israeli forces sealed Hebron and emptied the Ein Deir Baha district this weekend after a Friday shooting at a military checkpoint killed two soldiers. The Hebron municipality said 370 families, nearly 2,000 people, were displaced during the sweep. By Sunday evening, steel barriers blocked all roads in and out of the city of 250,000, with only pedestrians passing through checkpoints.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the city after the attack and promised a forceful response. Netanyahu warned of military operations on a scale the West Bank has not seen in nearly 60 years of occupation. His coalition trails in polling with two days of campaigning left before Tuesday's vote. Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, had drawn little attention in the campaign until now.

The neighborhood of Farsh al-Hawa sits closest to the checkpoint where the shooting occurred. Bulldozers flattened it within hours of the attack. By Sunday morning, an industrial zone that held car workshops, a large ceramics plant and other businesses was reduced to rubble. Work continued there while troops moved into Ein Deir Baha, a few kilometers away.

Fahed Ahmaro, imam of the local mosque, said military vehicles parked near his home around midnight and loudspeakers ordered residents to leave. Thirty members of his family lived in the house. He took his mother and some grandchildren to his daughter's home elsewhere in Hebron. As he returned to collect belongings, a neighbor told him the army had blown the gates off the house. "You don't know what you have until you lose it," Ahmaro said.

The Israeli army said residents left voluntarily and that civilians who wanted to evacuate were allowed to depart temporarily. Ahmaro rejected that account. "Never, never, never. Why should I leave my house?" he said. He was shopping at a market on Sunday for clothes for his grandchildren, unsure how long the separation would last.

Abdul Halim al-Tamimi, 77, said military forces arrived at his home at 1:30 a.m. and gave his family 10 minutes to leave. An intelligence officer warned that refusal would lead to displacement similar to Gaza, Tamimi said. His family stood outside until three military vehicles arrived, and they left at 3 a.m. Saturday. By Sunday morning, their villa flew large Israeli flags, sat ringed by military vehicles and served as an army headquarters.

The army said about 2,000 local people belonged to the Jaba'a clan, from which the gunmen were allegedly drawn, and called the clan associated with Hamas. Residents said the clan numbers 150 people at most and has no known record of radicalism. Tamimi said his family belongs to a different clan and suggested the operation might serve election publicity.

Hebron's mayor, Yousef al-Jabari, called the road closures and home seizures collective punishment and said residents had been pulled from their houses while media were kept out of the district. Delivery driver Wasam Sadi arrived at a checkpoint with a smashed windshield and glass in his eyes, saying settlers had attacked him at a nearby junction. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cannot vote on Tuesday, but the result will shape policy toward them.