Israel orders West Bank closure after Hebron shooting kills two Palestinians

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men, and at least five Israelis were wounded, in a shooting at a checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday, AFP reported, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then ordered a cordon around the city and prepared a full closure of the West Bank.

What happened

An AFP journalist who witnessed the firefight saw two Palestinian men in casual clothes, armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle, exchanging fire with Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Hebron. Israeli forces eventually shot and killed them, the journalist said.

The Israeli military said soldiers rushed to the Judea Junction area, also known as the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, after an early-morning shooting attack. “IDF soldiers eliminated two terrorists and continue searches in the area,” it claimed in a statement. That description is the Israeli military’s own.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical service, said five people were wounded in the initial shooting, two of them critically. One victim was a man in his 20s in “very serious condition” with gunshot wounds.

Netanyahu’s response

Netanyahu claimed Israel had prevented a “major attack” by killing the two armed Palestinians. He said he had instructed the military to “impose a cordon on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full closure of the entire West Bank starting today”. Reports on open-source Telegram groups said many checkpoints in the area had already been closed.

Netanyahu, who is seeking a new term in elections on Tuesday, called for all political meetings to be cancelled on Friday because of the attack. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right figure who has been rising in the polls, called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to be dismantled. AFP noted there is no evidence suggesting that the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was connected to Friday’s attack.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief and Netanyahu’s main rival in the election, praised the troops’ response. “Like all Israelis, I pray for the complete and quick recovery of the injured,” he said.

Rising tension

The attack comes as tensions soar across the occupied West Bank, including over attacks by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinian olive harvesters, and days before the Israeli election. Read our reports on settlers attacking olive pickers in Turmus Ayya and on the house arrest of suspects in settler attacks.

AFP’s picture, based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, is that Israeli forces or settlers have killed 1,113 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, were killed in attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.

A photograph published with the AFP report showed Israeli forces blocking a road to a Palestinian olive grove that they had declared a closed military zone.

Why it matters

A closure of the West Bank, if it goes ahead, would restrict the movement of Palestinians across the occupied territory, and it comes days before an Israeli election in which security is a central issue. The two Palestinians killed on Friday add to a toll that Palestinian figures put above 1,100 in three years, while calls from the Israeli far right to dismantle the Palestinian Authority raise the pressure on a territory already under occupation. The coming days, before Tuesday’s vote, will show how far the closure is enforced and whether more violence follows.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and AFP.