Netanyahu Closes West Bank After Two Soldiers Die in Hebron Gun Battle

A firefight outside Hebron lasted about 20 minutes and left four people dead: two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen. The exchange began Friday morning at a military position near Yehuda Junction, according to the Israeli army. Three other soldiers were lightly wounded.

The army identified the two attackers as Palestinians from Hebron who arrived armed with an M16 assault rifle and a handgun. It said the men were killed after the gun battle and that it had foiled a "terror attack against Israeli civilians." Emergency responders reported five injured people taken to hospitals in Israel, including two men in their 20s with gunshot wounds to the lower limbs and one person who was unconscious and seriously hurt. "We arrived at a difficult scene while shooting was still taking place in the area," said Tzuriel Edri of the response team.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of his security cabinet with senior military and security officials. His office said security forces were ordered to cordon off Hebron at once and to prepare a closure of the entire West Bank starting Friday. Netanyahu blamed Hamas, saying the group was "planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians," without describing what that attack involved. He also said "our brave soldiers thwarted this attack with courage and determination."

The army later said it had begun searches in the part of Hebron where the gunmen had operated, an operation expected to last several days. Residents there could leave only through three designated exit points after questioning and security screening. The military also started demolishing infrastructure it described as a threat. Army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said a large quantity of ammunition was found in a vehicle used by the attackers, intended for a larger-scale attack.

Israeli forces and security agencies carried out dozens of operations across the West Bank on Friday, arresting dozens of people, some affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and seizing weapons including M16 rifles and submachine guns.

The violence arrives as Israeli voters decide next Tuesday whether to give Netanyahu another term. He said Hamas could try to strike Israel to influence the election, but offered no evidence for that claim. Movement restrictions in the territory have grown more frequent: this marked the fourth time in the past month that Israel shut gates and checkpoints linking Palestinian villages to main roads.

Netanyahu said the military would force Palestinians out of the Hebron neighbourhood he said the attackers came from, comparing it to Israel's assaults on two Palestinian refugee camps in 2025. Human Rights Watch has said such expulsions amount to war crimes, a characterization Israel rejects. Brad Lander, a U.S. congressional candidate detained by Israeli forces on Wednesday who was in the West Bank on Friday, called the closure part of an effort "to take more control, to make Palestinian life impossible."

The West Bank has also seen a surge in settler violence during this year's olive harvest, which Amnesty International said has become "a season of horror" for Palestinian families.