Takeaways Up Front
1. Israel sealed Hebron and began demolitions after the military said two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint Friday.
2. The military reported operations at more than 400 sites and 40 arrests, while the Hebron municipality said more than 2,200 residents were displaced.
3. Crossings into Israel stay closed through Tuesday’s national election, which polls show as a close race over Netanyahu’s security record.
The Israeli military sealed off the West Bank city of Hebron and began demolishing Palestinian homes over the weekend, part of a widening operation it launched after two gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint outside the city on Friday.
Troops operated at more than 400 locations and arrested 40 Palestinians it said were tied to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The Hebron municipality said the campaign displaced more than 2,200 residents, including nearly 300 children, and sealed every entrance to the city of about 250,000 people.
Footage shows the moment Israeli forces neutralized the two terrorists who opened fire at a checkpoint in Judea on Friday.
The terrorists killed two Israelis and injured several others in the attack. https://t.co/k6MYyQTMs6
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 25, 2026
Troops Seal the City and Demolish a District
Israeli forces entered Hebron overnight into Saturday, searching houses and using loudspeakers to order residents of the Deir Baha district to leave, Mayor Yousef Jabari said.
Hebron municipal officials said families had been forced from nearly 500 apartments, and the municipality estimated that about 86 acres had been destroyed or marked for demolition by Saturday afternoon.
The IDF said roughly 2,000 residents of the targeted area belong to a clan it described as associated with Hamas and as the group the attackers came from. The military said civilians who chose to leave were allowed through screening points staffed by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the IDF.
The shooting that set off the operation took place Friday at a junction outside Hebron, where two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on troops. Two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, were killed and three others lightly wounded before troops killed both attackers after a roughly 20-minute gunfight, the military said. Investigators recovered an M16 rifle, a handgun, and a cache of ammunition from the attackers’ vehicle, according to the IDF.
Replicating the Northern Camp Operations
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the campaign would replicate earlier operations in Tulkarm and Jenin, where forces occupied neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians starting in early 2025.
Netanyahu, speaking from the attack site Friday, said troops would move house to house. “We will act to destroy this place,” he said.
Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, is the only place where Jewish settlers live inside a densely populated Palestinian area under military protection. Local officials called the operation collective punishment staged for the election.
“We are being collectively punished for something we neither did nor supported,” said Issa Amro, a Hebron civil rights activist whose relatives were among those displaced.
The raid comes days before Tuesday’s national election, the first since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks and widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s security record.
Opinion polls show him running even with a bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff. Six Israelis have been killed in West Bank attacks this year.
Over the same period, 112 Palestinians, including the two gunmen, have been killed, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.
What’s Next: Crossings into Israel and most Palestinian work permits remain suspended until after Tuesday’s vote, the military said. The IDF said the operation would continue for several days and has not said whether displaced residents will be allowed to return.
Sources