Loading the Audio Player…

JERUSALEM – Two soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were killed Friday when two men fired upon an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank town of Hebron. At least three other victims were wounded, and the gunmen also died in the incident, Israeli authorities said.

The two soldiers killed were 23-year-old Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman and 20-year-old Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, both of the Ari Battalion 775, Search and Rescue Brigade, according to a statement from the IDF.

What happened? According to a statement by the IDF, the gunmen launched their attack in the Judea Junction area of Hebron before IDF troops eliminated them. The two Palestinian gunmen were traveling in a car with an M4 machine gun and a pistol, likely planning to drive past the checkpoint and mount a larger attack on Route 35, which has a large number of civilians, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post, citing what the outlet described as IDF sources.

How is Israel responding? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a video statement later in the day promising retaliation. Pledging to apply unprecedented pressure in the West Bank, Netanyahu said the military would isolate the suspects’ neighborhood and evacuate it, before going house-to-house and removing any weapons and destroying any infrastructure used by terrorists. He added that the cities of Hebron and Halhul would be entirely cordoned off. The entire West Bank will be shut down beginning on Friday, Netanyahu said in a statement. The region is referred to by Israelis as the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria.

What is the current political situation in the West Bank? The West Bank is one of two Palestinian territories in the region, the other being Gaza. Israel has been at war in the Gaza area since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, launched by that territory’s official government, the terror group Hamas. By contrast, the West Bank has been governed in part by the Palestinian Authority, and in part by Israel, based on a tiered system that divides the country into three different areas. Israel has provided security enforcement in much of the region. Tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinians have been high in recent months, with reports of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian homes.

Dig deeper: Listen to my report in which I talk to new recruits for the Israel Defense Forces’ Search and Rescue Brigade.