Israel seals off Hebron, displaces hundreds of Palestinian families in a day

Israeli forces have raided and displaced more than 200 Palestinian families from Hebron in the occupied West Bank within a day, in an act being described by Israeli officials as a campaign of collective punishment. This comes following an attack by gunmen who killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside the city, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a comprehensive lockdown of the entire occupied West Bank.

According to reports documented by Al Jazeera, nearly 1,000 checkpoints, roadblocks, and iron gates across the West Bank have been completely sealed. At least 15 towns have been targeted in the northern West Bank, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya, according to Al Jazeera. Clashes were reported in Hebron, southern West Bank, between Israeli settlers and Palestinian families, according to Israel’s Walla news outlet.

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This comes after an Israeli bulldozer demolished a three-storey building, as families were given five minutes to collect their belongings. Al Jazeera reported that they carried “small bags of clothes” and are now set up in temporary shelters facilitated by the Hebron municipality. Hebron has been strictly sealed off, with seven primary district entrances closed by the military. Movement between cities in the West Bank has been heavily restricted, isolating local communities.

The far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, posted a video of himself in front of a bulldozer as it tore down a Palestinian home near the site of the firefight. This comes on the trail of an election campaign which saw Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition bloc weaken, according to a final poll published on October 23 by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, with 48 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The election is being seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's promise to guarantee Israeli national security.