Netanyahu Orders West Bank Campaign After Hebron Checkpoint Firefight

Israeli forces began tearing down homes and moving hundreds of Palestinians out of a Hebron neighborhood on Friday, October 23, after a firefight at an Israeli checkpoint left two soldiers dead and three others wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the country from the site of the shooting and pledged a West Bank military campaign "on a scale not seen since the Six Day War." He added, "We will act to demolish this place, to change it completely."

The Israeli military reported that its soldiers were positioned behind concrete barriers when two gunmen opened fire. The exchange of fire continued for approximately 20 minutes before soldiers killed the attackers. Netanyahu compared the scope of the planned operation to an assault last year on two refugee camps in the northern West Bank that displaced tens of thousands of people. Human Rights Watch classified those expulsions as war crimes, a characterization Israel rejects.

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a statement urging foreign governments to intervene to prevent "another wave of ethnic cleansing and war crimes." The United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory has described the current climate as a "new level of dehumanization of Palestinians." Movement in and around Hebron, the most populous city in the occupied West Bank, has been restricted through widespread closures. The territory contains roughly 925 checkpoints, roadblocks, earth mounds, and other barriers.

Analysts attribute the timing of the military response to Israel's national elections scheduled for October 27. Polls currently show Netanyahu running neck and neck with rival Gadi Eisenkot, with neither candidate commanding enough support to form a government. Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said Netanyahu's campaign message is "I'm Mr. Security." Citrinowicz characterized the removal of families from the attackers' neighborhood, which lacked any established link to the gunmen, as "collective punishment."

Citrinowicz stated that preventing further attacks requires giving people hope rather than collective punishment. He noted that authorities should arrest those intending to carry out attacks while assisting those who seek a stable life with a functioning economy.