Informative · Human rights

Israel just forced thousands of Palestinians out of Hebron

1 hour ago · 24 October 2026Share

Al-Shuhada Street in Hebron. File photo. Trocaire from Ireland · CC BY 2.0

More than 1,500 Palestinians have been pushed out of their homes in Hebron.

It's been two days now. And the operation isn't slowing down.

So how did this start? Two Israeli soldiers were shot dead at a checkpoint near Telem, a settlement north of Hebron. Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem.

Two Palestinian gunmen fired from a car with an Israeli licence plate. Israeli forces shot both of them dead on the spot. Three more Israeli soldiers were lightly hurt.

Within hours, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, ordered a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank and sealed off Hebron completely.

He said Israeli forces would go house to house in the neighbourhood where the attackers lived. Evacuate residents. Demolish what he called terrorist infrastructure.

And here's the thing. It didn't stay in that one neighbourhood.

Israeli forces knocked down a three-storey building in Hebron. The families inside got five minutes to grab their things. Hundreds more families were told to leave the city's Ein Deir Bahha area.

The military also raided at least 15 towns across the northern West Bank. Nablus, Jenin, Tubas, Qalqilya. Dozens of Palestinians were detained.

So how many people have actually been displaced? The numbers don't agree, and they keep climbing.

Hebron's governorate says more than 200 families, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the governor himself.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist living in Hebron, says at least 250 families. That includes his own sister and her seven children.

The Times of Israel puts the total at around 1,500 people. And it reports the Israeli military is planning to order another 2,500 people out of two more areas of the city.

These are not all counting the same thing. The operation is still going, so the numbers are still moving.

Hebron's governorate has declared a state of emergency. It's setting up a crisis management committee for the families who've lost their homes.

The rest of this story is for members.

Yuli Novak runs the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. She says this amounts to ethnic cleansing. She's calling on foreign governments to step in and stop the forced displacement, the collective punishment, the unlawful destruction in Hebron.

B'Tselem says something bigger too. It says at least 33,000 Palestinians have now been displaced across the whole northern West Bank since this campaign began. That's not just Hebron. That's the wider picture.

Israel Katz, Israel's Defence Minister, posted online that the model used to flatten the Jenin refugee camp is now arriving in Hebron. Jenin's camp was levelled earlier in this same campaign.

So what does Israel's military say? It says the Hebron operation is focused and limited to the area the attackers came from. It expects the operation to last several days. It says residents inside the area can leave through three checkpoints after being questioned.

But the military hasn't responded to the displacement numbers from B'Tselem, WAFA or Issa Amro. Not one of them.

And it's not just Hebron feeling this. Across the rest of the West Bank, nearly 1,000 checkpoints and gates are now closed. Millions of Palestinians are affected, just trying to get to work, school or hospital.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's National Security Minister, is using the attack to call for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled completely.

Now, the timing. Israel holds parliamentary elections in three days. Netanyahu is campaigning on national security.

Here's what we still don't know. Whether Israeli forces are issuing formal evacuation orders, or just using pressure to force people out. How many more families will be displaced before this ends. Whether it spreads to more neighbourhoods or more towns.

Right now, the number of displaced Palestinians in Hebron is still rising. And nobody in Israel's government has said when that stops.

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Israel just forced thousands of Palestinians out of Hebron

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