After deadly attack at checkpoint: Israel seals off West Bank

A man with a long beard and a pistol in his hand ducks in the hail of bullets: This image from a photographer for the AFP news agency is said to show one of the two attackers who opened fire on Israeli forces in Hebron on Friday. Other images show a man with a machine gun in his hand. The attack is said to have occurred at an Israeli checkpoint. Five Israelis were injured, two of whom have since died. The two Palestinians were shot dead by security forces.

Hebron is located in the southern West Bank and is the only city there where Israeli settlers live in the middle of a Palestinian residential area. Violence escalates again and again on both sides.

Israeli media has identified the two attackers as Hebron residents from the same family. They are said to have used an M16 rifle and a pistol for the attack; the Israeli military (IDF) said they found a large amount of ammunition in their car. The terrorist organization Hamas has praised the attack as a "heroic operation" but has not directly claimed it.

After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza, followed in 2024 by the advance against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The conflict over the region of Palestine began at the beginning of the 20th century.

Following the attack, the Israeli military cordoned off the area around Hebron and carried out raids on several Palestinian villages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also announced the closure of the entire West Bank. It should start today.

It is unclear whether this is a direct result of the terrorist attack or whether it is related to the upcoming elections in Israel and has been planned for some time. According to the Israeli newspaper Times of Israel, a lockdown was already planned for Monday and Tuesday, election day. A request to the Prime Minister's Office remained unanswered.

Meanwhile, videos from Hebron show clouds of tear gas, people running away and trucks making chaotic attempts to turn around. Stun grenades can be heard in the background. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, a man is said to have been seriously injured. Israeli forces have already set up roadblocks on numerous roads around Palestinian villages, both in the southern and northern West Bank.

Netanyahu praised the courage of Israeli soldiers in the attack, writing on “Extensive waves of arrests” are currently being carried out. He described the attackers as Hamas members.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that he had ordered the demolition of Palestinian buildings near the crime scene, which Israel classifies as illegal. Smotrich, himself a settler and leader of a right-wing extremist religious party, de facto heads the civil administration and settlement construction in the Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank, also known as Area C.

In a video, Netanyahu later said he wanted to "destroy" the neighborhood in Hebron where the attackers came from. "We will do something that has not been done before: we will implement the successful and aggressive model that we have used in the refugee camps - which are essentially terrorist strongholds," said the Prime Minister.

In the spring of 2025, the Israeli military expelled around 35,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps in the West Bank and largely damaged or leveled them - a process that human rights organizations sharply criticized. The camps are still deserted and occupied by the army, which is preventing the residents from returning.

The prime minister also mentioned that the largest military operation in the West Bank since the conquest in 1967 was currently being planned. When and how it would take place remained unclear. From then on, Netanyahu praised the “heroic settlers” who were “a role model for the people of Israel”. Settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.