Israeli troops level Hebron neighbourhood and drive out families after checkpoint attack

By Saturday afternoon, a stretch of Hebron's Ein Deir Baha district that had been home to hundreds of families was rubble or marked for demolition. The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares, about 86 acres, had been destroyed or earmarked, and that around 1,500 people had been put out of their houses. Local Palestinian authorities described it as collective punishment for an attack the day before.

That attack took place on Friday at an Israeli military checkpoint outside the city. Two gunmen opened fire, and a gunfight of about 20 minutes followed. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three were wounded. Both gunmen were also killed. Ein Deir Baha was alleged to be the home district of the two attackers, and it became the focus of the demolitions.

Videos sent by a Hebron resident show what followed. In one, soldiers spray a black cross on Palestinian houses. In another, a bulldozer brings down a stone wall on a hillside. The footage of the devastation shows every house flattened across several blocks of an urban area. A further clip shows a large residential building hung with Israeli flags. People told the resident it belonged to a prominent Hebron family and had been taken over as a temporary military headquarters. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed, with checkpoints on every point of entry.

The politics are plain. Israeli elections are four days away. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, went to the site of the attack and promised an immediate and fierce response. Netanyahu said Israel would "act to destroy this place." Smotrich, who is running with a smaller coalition party, had himself filmed in body armour in front of a Palestinian building as it was demolished. He said he had ordered the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures next to the attack site, and called for a comprehensive military campaign "exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon."

A municipality spokesperson said about 300 families had been evicted. Some found refuge with friends and relatives. The municipality said it had opened community halls and children's play areas to shelter others. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Israeli plans to displace a further 2,500 people.

Issa Amro, a Hebron civil rights activist, said his sister's family was among those forced out. "We are being collectively punished for something we neither did nor supported," he said, adding that the suffering was being turned into political material for the elections while innocent families paid the price. In a telephone interview he said the hundreds of families who left had no connection to Friday's events. The area is very large, he said, and residents do not know whether this is election propaganda or a serious plan reflecting decisions about what to do after the vote.

The Israeli army was approached for comment on the operations and on the videos showing the extent of the destruction. The figures so far come from Hebron's municipality and Palestinian reports. What happens after the election, and whether the further displacement reported by Wafa goes ahead, will show how far the operation extends.