Israel just pulled its troops out of Hebron after ten days

Israeli forces just pulled out of Hebron.

Ten days after they moved in.

Khaled Dudin, the Governor of Hebron, announced it a few hours ago. He says Palestinian security forces now have full control of the area. And he says the families who got pushed out of their homes can go back.

So how did this start?

On 23 October, two Palestinians shot and killed two Israeli soldiers, and wounded three more, at a checkpoint in Hebron. Israeli forces killed both gunmen afterwards. Then the military sealed off Hebron and the villages around it. Some Palestinian homes got seized and turned into military posts.

Here's the scale of it.

More than 3,300 Palestinians were displaced or affected, according to the Hebron Governorate. Mostly in two areas, Al-Jalda and Ein Deir Baha. Fifteen homes and other buildings were knocked down.

Yousef al-Jabari, the Mayor of Hebron, says 327 businesses were forced to close. He puts the daily losses at more than 12 million shekels. That's around $3.8m. Add $1.9m in damaged infrastructure, and about $160,000 in health and environmental costs.

And 80,000 students couldn't go to school for all ten days.

Yousef al-Jabari says Hebron makes up about 40 percent of the Palestinian economy. He calls what happened there "collective punishment".

Yousuf Daas, an economist at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, says business owners in Hebron reported losses of up to $20m. Stock, shops, workshops, all destroyed since the lockdown began. A separate set of accounts from named business owners in Hebron, reported about a week ago, put individual losses between $19m and $26m. That's a similar range. It doesn't confirm the $20m figure on its own, but it points the same way.