Hebron Locked Down and Thousands Displaced as Israelis Head to the Polls

As Israelis vote this week in what is widely seen as one of their most consequential elections in years, many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been confined to their homes or neighbourhoods. The cause is a wave of Israeli military operations around the city of Hebron.

Hebron has been under lockdown since Friday, when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an army checkpoint at the city's northern entrance, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding three. After the suspects were killed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Hebron isolated and said troops would search house by house in the gunmen's neighbourhood. "We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely," he said.

Residents of the al-Jalda and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods say soldiers used loudspeakers over the weekend to order them out. By Monday, the fourth day of closure, at least 3,171 people from 488 families had been forced from their homes, according to Hebron Municipality figures cited by the Wafa news agency. Defence Minister Israel Katz said they would not return until Israel had finished dealing with "all the Hamas issues in Hebron". Governor Khaled Dudin said forces had searched more than 500 homes and arrested more than 70 people, and had split the city with 128 closed gates and 120 checkpoints. The Palestinian Prisoner's Society said the displaced include 127 infants, 81 pregnant women and 26 people with disabilities, and counted at least 47 detentions in Hebron since Friday.

In Farsh al-Hawa, bulldozers flattened a three-apartment building owned by Riyad Amrish, along with a tile and ceramics factory, an auto-parts shop and other businesses. Israel's Channel 12 reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the demolitions. The Israeli rights group B'Tselem warned that the operation amounts to "collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes".

Hebron is the most visible of several sieges at different scales. In Masafer Yatta, the family of Yusuf Shanaran has been besieged by settlers for three weeks and cannot leave or receive aid without army coordination. In Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, a 1954 family home has received a demolition order with a November 11 deadline. The village of Madama, south of Nablus, is only now emerging from a two-week siege of its four entrances, while twelve Masafer Yatta communities were cut off for several days. The army also barred Palestinian workers from settlements on Sunday and Monday and plans to close all crossings on election day. Meanwhile, Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu's Likud party was preparing to challenge results from Arab polling stations before any votes were cast.

The olive harvest has brought unprecedented settler violence, theft and closed-military-zone orders. The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission counted 482 attacks on the harvest across nine governorates by Sunday, Wafa reported. Israel released nine of the 10 settlers arrested after last week's attacks on a foreign journalist and diplomats, and the assaults have continued. Reported incidents include stone attacks that wounded three farmers in Burin, live fire at pickers in Berin and Osarin, burned olive trees in Burqa, and hundreds of trees uprooted by a bulldozer in Madama. Soldiers also uprooted trees for a settler road in Deir Qaddis.

Volunteers who joined the harvest in solidarity were also targeted. Brad Lander, a US Democratic congressional candidate, was among about 80 volunteers detained near Nahalin on Wednesday and released with a warning. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused him of "harvesting headlines".

In Gaza, at least 37 more Palestinians were killed over the past week as Israeli attacks continued. The Health Ministry's Monday report recorded 11 deaths and 35 wounded, bringing the toll since the October 2025 ceasefire to 1,559 killed and 5,608 wounded, with a cumulative toll of 74,555. Among the dead were three security guards at the Islamic University in Gaza City on Sunday. Israel said it was targeting a Hamas operative.

Hunger also worsened for days while crossings stayed shut. Flour ran out, leaving seven of 20 commercial bakeries open, and a tray of eggs reached 60 shekels ($19.50). Pressure eased somewhat on the evening of October 23, when Israel told traders that commercial goods would resume and an Egyptian committee delivered flour.