Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire Friday on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron in the southern West Bank, setting off a gun battle that lasted roughly 20 minutes before troops killed both attackers. The Israeli military identified the soldiers killed as Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20; three other soldiers were wounded. The gunmen arrived by car carrying a rifle and a handgun and took cover in nearby buildings as they fired on the checkpoint. The military said the attackers' vehicle held a large quantity of ammunition, leading the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, to say the soldiers had prevented "an even more serious attack."

Within hours, Netanyahu announced he had ordered security forces to seal off Hebron and begin a large-scale operation across the West Bank, which he also referred to as Judea and Samaria, a name rooted in biblical geography that Israeli officials commonly use for the territory. He described a plan involving troops moving house to house, evacuating residents and destroying what he called "terrorist infrastructure." Separately, he also pledged to advance settlement construction in the area, a goal distinct from the immediate military operation but one he tied to the broader response. He ordered the evacuation of residents from the Hebron neighborhood where the gunmen had lived.

By Saturday the operation was no longer a plan on paper. Hebron remained sealed, military bulldozers were razing buildings in the targeted neighborhoods, and Palestinian officials said well over a thousand residents had been displaced. The Palestinian Authority condemned the demolitions and evacuations as collective punishment against civilians who had no part in the attack. Palestinian prisoner-rights monitors and local media reported that Israeli forces had detained dozens of Palestinians across the West Bank as the clampdown widened, with figures in various reports ranging from under 20 to several dozen; the Israeli military described the detentions as suspects being brought in for questioning rather than confirming a specific total.

Accounts of the gunmen's affiliation differ. Netanyahu and some Israeli media described them as linked to Hamas, which maintains a presence in Hebron. Hamas itself praised the shooting publicly as a heroic act and a response to what it called ongoing Israeli actions against Palestinians, but according to CBS News and CNN, it stopped short of formally claiming responsibility for the attack.

Separately, Al Jazeera reported that armed Israeli settlers attempted to force their way into the home of a Palestinian grandfather in the West Bank village of Umm Safa. The episode occurred apart from the Hebron operation, amid a longer-running pattern of friction between settlers and Palestinian residents in parts of the West Bank.

The attack and the response landed four days before Israelis vote on Tuesday, October 27. Netanyahu, who has led Israel for roughly 19 years across multiple terms, is seeking to extend his tenure. His Likud party canceled its campaign events scheduled for Friday in the attack's aftermath.

For Hebron's Palestinian residents, the closures and demolitions mean a sharply disrupted daily life in a city long at the center of friction between settlers and Palestinians. How long the closures and the broader operation continue was not yet clear.

References

1. 1.CBS News — reports Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility; details Netanyahu's operation order
2. 2.CNN — reports Hamas praised the attack without claiming responsibility; confirms three soldiers wounded and the siege of Hebron
3. 3.Al Jazeera — reports on arrests of dozens of Palestinians across the West Bank and the Umm Safa settler incident
4. 4.The New Arab — reports on detentions of dozens of Palestinians during the West Bank crackdown
5. 5.Anadolu Agency — reports arrest figures during the Hebron siege
6. 6.NBC News — details Netanyahu's house-to-house operation plan and cordon order
7. 7.Open The Magazine — reports Netanyahu's separate pledge to advance settlement construction
8. 8.The Philadelphia Inquirer — reports IDF chief of staff's comment that soldiers prevented a more serious attack