Israeli occupation forces have imposed a complete lockdown on the West Bank, set to last through election day
OCT 27, 2026
(Photo credit: Mussa Qawasma / Reuters)
Israeli occupation forces have forcibly displaced nearly 5,000 Palestinians in Hebron over the past five days, according to the city’s municipality, after sealing off the entire occupied West Bank under a lockdown set to last through 27 October.
The 4,969 displaced, belonging to 780 families, include 336 infants, 441 elderly people, 216 pregnant and nursing women, 44 people with disabilities, and 312 people with chronic illnesses, the municipality said.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 85 Palestinians have been detained across Hebron Governorate, including a young girl.
The displaced were driven out of Deir Baha and Al-Jilda areas of Hebron, which troops have since sealed off, while hundreds more remain trapped inside their homes in nearby neighborhoods.
Local officials said occupation soldiers beat residents, destroyed their cars, and used Palestinian vehicles to barricade roads, while the closures have inflicted mounting losses on homes and businesses.
According to a military source cited by Israel’s Public Broadcaster (KAN), occupation troops ransacked at least 500 buildings across Hebron and turned up with just two firearms.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned on Monday that Israel’s attacks in Hebron raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing, saying statements by senior Israeli officials show the measures are punitive and designed to spread fear.
“Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law,” he said.
Across the occupied West Bank, the lockdown has brought daily life to a halt, with checkpoints choking the movement of students, patients, and workers trying to reach schools, hospitals, and workplaces, according to local sources.
Israel launched the offensive after two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers at a military checkpoint near Hebron on Friday.
Netanyahu, who first ordered the total siege of Hebron immediately after the shooting operation, has now refused to lift it, overriding the military’s own assessment that the operation had achieved every one of its objectives,” KAN reported on Monday.
The siege comes as illegal Israeli settlers, backed and protected by Israeli soldiers, have carried out 482 attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters across the occupied West Bank since the start of October, stealing crops, destroying trees, and driving farmers from their land, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.
The commission says the campaign aims to undermine Palestinian presence on the land and strip families of their livelihoods.
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