HEBRON, October 23 (Aalimi Nation) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the closure of Hebron and told Israel's military to prepare a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank, after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire near a checkpoint on the city's outskirts and injured at least five people.
The Israeli military said troops killed both attackers at the scene. Israel's national ambulance service said it received a report of the shooting at about 7:15 a.m. local time near Yehuda Junction on Route 35 and treated at least five people, two of them in critical condition. The military said the gunmen carried an M16 rifle and a handgun, and that numerous soldiers were operating in the area.
Netanyahu orders West Bank lockdown
The Prime Minister's office said it had instructed the army to "impose a closure" on Hebron and prepare a lockdown across the territory starting Friday. Netanyahu held a security assessment with the defence minister, the army chief of staff and security chiefs, according to his own post on social media.
He said forces were operating "with increased intensity to thwart terrorism" and carrying out extensive arrests, adding: "You have no safe haven." Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the attack and said the group had been planning a major assault on civilians, citing large quantities of weapons and ammunition but giving no further detail.
Israeli military officials said they believe the two men, reportedly 27-year-old residents of Hebron from the same family, intended a larger attack on civilians. Officials were still examining whether the pair acted alone or were part of a wider cell.
Political reaction
Within Israel's government, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled, saying there could not be a "state of terror" in the area. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said a comprehensive military campaign in the West Bank was unavoidable. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised the attack and urged further confrontations, according to statements attributed to the groups.
The shooting came days before Israel's general election on Tuesday, which is widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership. Israeli officials had already planned to close the West Bank and Gaza on Monday and Tuesday for the vote.
Rising tensions across the territory
The incident comes amid heightened violence across the West Bank. Palestinian groups said Israeli forces arrested 36 Palestinians in raids on Thursday, including people in Jenin, Hebron, Nablus and Jerusalem governorates. A Palestinian commission that monitors settlement activity said it had documented 17 attacks by soldiers and settlers on farmers during the olive harvest that day, including assaults, theft of crops and equipment, and burning of trees.
The United Nations has recorded at least 160 settler attacks linked to the olive harvest in the first two weeks of October, and said many were carried out with the protection or participation of Israeli forces.
What happens next
It was not clear how long the full lockdown would last or how strictly movement between Palestinian cities would be restricted. A search for others who may have helped the gunmen was reported to be continuing in the Hebron area, and Israeli forces were operating at the homes of the attackers.
