Israel is preparing to shut down the entire occupied West Bank after a gunfight outside Hebron on Friday morning, a move ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Israelis due to vote in a general election on Tuesday.
According to the army, two gunmen carrying an assault rifle and a handgun started shooting near a checkpoint outside the city shortly after seven in the morning. Soldiers killed both of them. Paramedics from Magen David Adom treated at least five wounded people, two in critical condition, and witnesses described the exchange of fire as lasting about twenty minutes. The identities of the dead men had not been released by late morning.
Within hours Netanyahu’s office announced that Hebron was being cordoned off immediately and that troops should prepare to seal the whole territory, which Israel’s government refers to as Judea and Samaria. The prime minister praised the troops for stopping what he called a planned major attack, blamed Hamas without offering evidence, and warned the group’s fighters that they had “no place to hide”. He also cancelled campaign appearances. Hamas hailed the shooting but stopped short of claiming it.
Coalition hardliners seized on the incident. Itamar Ben-Gvir, who holds the security portfolio, demanded that the Palestinian Authority be dismantled, while Bezalel Smotrich, in charge of finance, wants a large-scale offensive across the territory along the lines of Gaza. There is no indication so far that the Authority had any link to the attack.
The closure lands on a territory already on edge. The olive harvest has brought a surge of settler assaults on Palestinian farmers: the United Nations logged at least 160 harvest-related attacks in the first fortnight of October, and a Palestinian commission counts 409 incidents between 1 and 21 October. On Thursday alone, soldiers detained three dozen Palestinians in overnight operations.
For Netanyahu, whose campaign has leaned heavily on security, the next few days will test whether a tougher line helps or hurts him at the ballot box.
