Netanyahu orders Hebron closure and West Bank lockdown after shooting attack

HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered an immediate closure of Hebron and told security forces to prepare a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank, after a shooting attack near the city.

Reports differ on the number and status of the Israeli wounded. Middle East Eye said reports pointed to two Palestinians dead and six Israeli soldiers wounded. Anadolu Agency said five Israelis were wounded and that Israeli army fire killed two Palestinians near the town of Halhul, in the Hebron district. Middle East Eye placed the shooting at the northern entrance of Hebron early on Friday morning.

Netanyahu's order

In a statement, Netanyahu said he had instructed the army and security agencies "to impose an immediate closure on Hebron and prepare for a comprehensive lockdown across Judea and Samaria," using the Israeli term for the West Bank. He said the measures would start on Friday. Middle East Eye reported that he wrote on X that he had directed the military and security forces to prepare for a "full lockdown."

Netanyahu said he had first held a security assessment with senior officials. Anadolu listed the military chief of staff and the heads of the Shin Bet and the National Security Council. Middle East Eye said he had consulted the Shin Bet chief and the commander of the military's Central Command.

The Israeli broadcaster KAN reported that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir had approved a security cordon around Hebron and nearby villages after the shooting, according to Anadolu.

Conditions on the ground

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli forces had closed all entrances to Hebron with iron gates, placing the city under what they described as a siege. They said the army had also blocked entrances to towns and residential communities with earth mounds and military checkpoints, which stopped movement between them.

The witnesses said Israeli forces raided the outskirts of Hebron and several nearby towns. They said soldiers searched shops and seized footage from surveillance cameras. Anadolu did not give the number of raids or say whether anyone had been detained. Zenga News could not independently verify these accounts.

In a post on Telegram, Al Jazeera Mubasher quoted the Israeli army as saying its forces were operating at the homes of those who carried out the Hebron shooting and of other suspects. The army statement was not available in the source material in full, and the post is unverified.

Accounts of the shooting

The Palestine Chronicle said in a Telegram post that six Israeli soldiers were wounded in a shooting at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint. The channel said reports differed on how many of them were critically injured. It said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians after a prolonged confrontation, and that the Israeli military identified them as Hamouda and Firas al-Ja'ba. This account comes from a social media post and has not been confirmed by an official Israeli statement in the material reviewed.

The sources do not agree on whether the wounded were soldiers or civilians. Anadolu referred to five wounded Israelis, while Middle East Eye and the Palestine Chronicle reported six soldiers. The sources also place the incident in slightly different locations: the northern entrance of Hebron, the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint and an area near Halhul. It is not clear from the material whether these descriptions refer to the same site or to separate stages of the incident.

Reactions

The Palestine Chronicle said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded restrictions on Palestinian movement. No direct statement from Ben-Gvir was included in the sources.

In a Telegram post, Al Jazeera Arabic cited the Israeli newspaper Maariv as quoting a senior Israeli officer. According to that report, the officer said Israeli forces had prevented what he described as a very large operation, but that Israel "paid a heavy price" in the Hebron attack. The post gave no further detail about the operation the officer referred to, and the claim has not been independently confirmed.

The Jordanian news site Jo24 reported, in a headline, that Hamas mourned the two men who carried out the Hebron attack. It said the group called for mobilisation and for escalating what it called resistance in the West Bank. The full text of the Hamas statement was not available in the material reviewed.

What is not confirmed

Several points remain unclear. The sources do not give an official Israeli figure for the wounded or say how many are in serious condition. They do not set out the sequence of events, including how the two Palestinians were killed. They also do not say how long the Hebron closure and the wider West Bank lockdown will last, or what the lockdown will involve beyond the restrictions already described by witnesses.

Background

The developments come ahead of Israel's legislative elections on 27 October, Anadolu noted.

The West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, has seen an escalation in Israeli military operations and settler violence since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, according to Anadolu. The agency lists the killing and arrest of Palestinians, home demolitions, attacks on mosques and vehicles, the destruction of farmland, restrictions on farmers reaching their fields, the displacement of Palestinian communities and the expansion of settlements among the effects. Israel's government uses different terms and gives different justifications for its operations in the territory.

Hebron, in the southern West Bank, is one of the largest Palestinian cities in the territory. The sources do not provide further background on its current security arrangements.