Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a comprehensive lockdown of the occupied West Bank after Israeli forces repelled an armed attack in the city of Hebron.
The directive, issued on Friday morning, followed an announcement by the Israeli military that its forces had shot dead two Palestinian gunmen who carried out an attack against a reserve battalion near the illegal settlement of Telem.
The incident and subsequent security clampdown have occurred against a backdrop of intensifying tensions across the Palestinian territory, where violence and pogroms by Israeli settlers and soldiers have escalated, reports Al Jazeera.
Attacks targeting Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest have mounted sharply ahead of Israel’s general elections scheduled for Tuesday.
Netanyahu declared on social media that security forces had thwarted a “major attack,” mentioning that he had directed personnel to immediately isolate Hebron and “prepare for a full lockdown across all of Judea and Samaria [the Israeli designation for the West Bank] starting today.”
According to Israeli sources, two Palestinians travelling in a car bearing Israeli licence plates opened fire towards troops stationed near a military checkpoint outside Hebron.
Israel’s emergency medical service reported that at least five Israeli soldiers sustained injuries, with two remaining in critical condition.
Local eyewitnesses stated that the exchange of fire lasted approximately 20 minutes, severely impeding the evacuation of the wounded.
Photographs released by the AFP news agency showed an armed man holding a handgun during the battle and subsequently lying on the ground surrounded by Israeli troops.
The military later arrested two Palestinians and imposed a closure on Hebron, while Netanyahu cancelled several scheduled election campaign events.
Political fallout and escalating rhetoric
In the wake of the clash, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that Israel assert complete control over the West Bank, where the government continues to back settlement expansion.
Ben-Gvir said the Palestinian Authority “must be dismantled and demilitarised, and its terror infrastructure wiped out completely.”
Conversely, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) commended the checkpoint shooting, describing it as a legitimate response to Israeli military incursions, settler assaults, and the war in Gaza, whilst urging further confrontations against Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Raids and attacks on olive harvest
A day prior to the Hebron incident, Israeli troops detained 36 Palestinians during widespread raids across the West Bank as attacks on olive harvesters intensified.
In the Jenin governorate, soldiers entered several towns and villages, detaining 10 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing figures from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
In Hebron governorate, Israeli forces raided the town of Tuqu, detaining former prisoner Shorok al-Badan alongside five others.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission stated that 14 individuals were arrested in Khirbet Jawaya, located in Masafer Yatta, while security sources cited by Wafa confirmed three additional detentions elsewhere in the governorate.
Three further arrests were recorded across the Nablus and Jerusalem governorates in Burin, Awarta, and the Qalandiya refugee camp.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission documented 17 separate pogroms carried out by Israeli forces and settlers on Thursday against farmers and groves during the olive harvest across Hebron, Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah and el-Bireh, Jenin, and Salfit.
Reported violations included physical assaults, blocking access to groves, theft of harvested produce and agricultural machinery, burning and destruction of olive trees, armed intimidation, and live gunfire.
The commission warned that these systematic disruptions severely threaten Palestinian agricultural livelihoods and access to their ancestral land.
The recurring attacks have attracted international censure; on Wednesday, the Israeli military briefly detained US Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander whilst he was volunteering alongside Palestinian olive harvesters in the West Bank.
