Hebron Municipality Says 1,500 Evicted as Troops Demolish Attack Suspects' District

Israeli troops flattened city blocks in Hebron this week, and by Saturday afternoon the municipal government counted about 1,500 residents forced from their homes across 35 hectares, or 86 acres, of the Ein Deir Baha district. The city of 250,000 people was sealed with checkpoints at every point of entry.

The Hebron municipality estimated that the 35 hectares were destroyed or marked for destruction. A municipal spokesperson said roughly 300 families were evicted. Some are staying with friends and relatives, and the municipality has opened community halls and children's play areas to house the rest. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israel plans to displace a further 2,500 people.

The operation followed a Friday attack on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron by two gunmen, Ein Deir Baha's alleged home district. A 20-minute gunfight left two Israeli soldiers dead and three wounded; both gunmen were also killed. Video sent by a Hebron resident showed soldiers spraying black crosses on houses, a bulldozer pulling down a stone wall, and a large residential building draped in Israeli flags. Residents said the building belonged to a prominent Hebron family and had been taken over as a temporary military headquarters.

Israeli elections are due in four days. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the attack site and promised a response. Netanyahu said Israel would "act to destroy this place". Smotrich, who is running with a smaller coalition party, had himself filmed in body armour in front of a Palestinian building as it came down. He said he had ordered "the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site" and called for "a comprehensive military campaign" of the kind conducted in Gaza and Lebanon.

Issa Amro, a Hebron civil rights activist, said the destruction reached his own family. "We are being collectively punished for something we neither did nor supported," he said, adding that his sister's family was among those driven out. In a telephone interview, Amro said hundreds of families who left had no connection to Friday's attack, and that he could not tell whether the scale of the operation reflected election politics or a decision carried out after the vote. The Israeli army was approached for comment on the operations and on the videos showing the destruction.