TEL AVIV, Israel — Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israelis in the West Bank on Friday, the Israeli military said, just four days before national elections and against the backdrop of a broader uptick in violence in the occupied territory. Meanwhile, gunmen in Jordan opened fire inside a church, killing seven people and wounding 40.
Five people were wounded in the attack, near the city of Hebron, including two who were in critical condition, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s ambulance service. The Israeli military said its soldiers had killed two assailants.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, said, “The troops’ swift action prevented an even more serious attack and further harm to civilians and security forces.” A large amount of ammunition was found in a vehicle used by the attackers, the military said.
Hours after the shooting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered security forces to cordon off Hebron, the most populous city in the West Bank, and to prepare for a “lockdown” of the territory starting on Friday. He added that security forces were conducting extensive arrests.
Israel’s military said that, in response to the killing of two soldiers and wounding of others in the West Bank earlier that day, its forces had begun “conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches” in the area of Hebron from which the two gunmen had operated.
It added in a statement late Friday that this operation was expected to continue for several days, and all residents living in the area will only be able to leave through three designated exit points following “questioning and security screening.”
The army said it has started demolishing infrastructure that poses a “threat” and that its soldiers continue operating across the West Bank.
Earlier Friday, Israel’s prime minister’s office said it had ordered the army to prepare for a full closure of the West Bank.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have conducted sweeping military raids, saying they are seeking to root out Palestinian armed groups, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Palestinian gunmen have conducted shootings and stabbings against Israel civilians and soldiers.
Extremist settlers have carried out attacks on Palestinians, setting mosques and homes ablaze, stealing livestock and cutting down olive trees. That aggression has forced entire Palestinian communities to flee.
Hamas praised the attack on Friday as a “heroic operation,” but it stopped short of taking credit.
The militant group also called on Palestinians bearing weapons to shoot “bullets at the chest of the occupiers, their soldiers and their criminal settlers.”
Yousef Jabari, the mayor of Hebron, said Israeli authorities had closed off every way in and out of Hebron and shut down the Palestinian-run part of the Ibrahimi Mosque, a shrine in the city revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the burial place of Abraham.
“This is collective punishment against innocent people,” Jabari said in an interview.
JORDAN SHOOTING
Also Friday, in Jordan, gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a church, killing seven people and wounding 40, authorities said.
The shooting took place at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, home to a minority Christian population.
Jordan’s Health Minister Ibrahim al-Budour said that two of those wounded are in critical condition.
A government statement said that the attack was “carried out by unknown assailants,” but didn’t say whether any gunmen were captured or killed. It said that “investigations are underway at full speed.”
US REDUCES EMBASSY STAFF
The State Department is reducing staff at four U.S. embassies in the Middle East after receiving intelligence that Iran has stepped up efforts to target American personnel in the region and elsewhere.
In a memo sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said his teams “have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel.”
The memo was obtained by The Associated Press and reported earlier by Axios. Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that the memo was sent to Rubio in his capacity as secretary of state and national security adviser.
The memo emerged shortly after the State Department announced it is reducing staff at the U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The three officials said the threats from Iran and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are related to the staffing changes.
ISRAELI ELECTION
In Israel, Arab political parties running in the country’s national election have asked the Supreme Court to ban partisan election observers from carrying guns at polling stations.
The petition, filed Thursday with the Israel-based legal group Adalah, said the ban was essential to protecting public safety and ensuring a free and fair election on Tuesday.
It followed announcements by Jewish parties led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that they planned to send about 2,000 election observers to Arab neighborhoods, citing reports of voter fraud.
STRIKES, FOOD SHORTAGES IN GAZA
Crowds gathered outside bakeries across Gaza on Friday, banging on metal doors and scrambling to obtain bags of bread.
The World Food Program announced Monday that it had reduced the number of people receiving assistance in Gaza to 1.1 million from 1.6 million because of a severe funding shortfall.
Ibrahim Abu Osama, a resident of Gaza City, said some bakeries had shut down and flour prices had skyrocketed since then. He said he had been unable to find bread.
At the same time, commercial shipments into Gaza, including food, were halted for days following a dispute over fees imposed on merchants. Israel said Monday it would gradually resume the shipments. As of Thursday, commercial shipments had resumed, but not of food.
Strikes by Israel’s army killed three people on Friday in southern Gaza and Gaza City, according to local health officials.
The first strike in southern Gaza killed one person. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas militant.
The second strike killed two people in Gaza City, but Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strike.
Grieving relatives of the two people killed in Gaza City gathered in the courtyard of the Shifa hospital, where the casualties were taken. The relatives wept over the bodies wrapped in white body bags as they bid their final farewells.
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Rasgon of The New York Times and staff reporters of The Associated Press.
Israeli soldiers gather at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by Palestinian gunmen at a junction near Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
In this photo released by the Royal Hashemite Court, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, center, visits a man wounded when gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church hours earlier, at Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak, Jordan, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (Royal Hashemite Court via AP)