Israel orders ‘full lockdown’ of occupied West Bank after 2 soldiers killed in shooting attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a “full lockdown” of the occupied West Bank on Friday after Israel’s military said it killed two Palestinians accused of launching a shooting attack that killed two soldiers and injured three others in the city of Hebron. The deadly incident comes just days before a crucial election that will decide whether Netanyahu can hold on to power. There has been a recent surge in Israeli settler violence and military activity in the West Bank centered on the start of the olive harvesting season, with Palestinians, activists and American journalists among those attacked and detained. Netanyahu’s office said it instructed the Israel Defense Forces to “impose a closure” on Hebron and to prepare for a “full lockdown” across the entire West Bank starting Friday. It gave no further details on the planned closure of the territory. In comments following an emergency meeting with his security cabinet and top military and security officials, Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the shooting and said the militant group was “planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians.” He cited “large quantities of weapons and ammunition discovered,” but did not provide further details on the attack. He did not say whether the injured included soldiers or civilians. The order to lock down the West Bank came hours after the Israeli military said it had killed two people after a shooting attack in which at least five people were initially reported injured. The Israeli military later said two soldiers had been killed in the attack. It said three additional soldiers were lightly injured and evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital. The military said the gunmen had been armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun and that “numerous” soldiers would be operating in the area following the incident. Magen David Adom, Israel’s primary emergency service, had earlier said it received a report at around 7:15 a.m. local time (12:15 a.m. ET) of multiple casualties following the attack near the Yehuda Junction, near Hebron. It said first responders had provided medical treatment to at least five people, including two in critical condition. The identities of the two people alleged to have launched the attack and who were killed by Israeli forces were not immediately clear as of late Friday morning. The lockdown comes ahead of next week’s Israeli election, which is largely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership around the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Netanyahu has focused much of campaign in the lead-up to Tuesday’s vote on security for Israelis. His government has repeatedly warned of potential attacks by the country’s “enemies” in the lead-up to the election, without providing evidence. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz suggested there would be a sweeping offensive in Hebron, comparing it to Israel’s deadly assault in Gaza and its operations Lebanon, as well as in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. “Every clan neighborhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged today will be evacuated of its residents, and the terror infrastructure in the neighborhood will be addressed and dismantled,” he said. “This is the only language that jihadist terrorism understands. Just like in Gaza, just like in Lebanon.” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, called Friday for the Palestinian Authority, the governing body that has long overseen parts of the occupied West Bank, to be dismantled in response to the attack. “There cannot be a situation where, within Judea and Samaria, we have a state of terror,” he said in a post on X, using a name employed by some Israelis for the area. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich shared similar sentiments, saying there was “no avoiding a comprehensive military campaign” in the West Bank to “dismantle the Palestinian authority, collect weapons, and eliminate terrorists — just as in Gaza and Lebanon.” The West Bank has been a growing flashpoint for months, and the past week has seen another wave of settler violence and military activity in the territory as the Palestinian olive harvesting season has gotten underway. American nationals are among those who have come under attack while accompanying Palestinian farmers on their harvests. Earlier this week, New York congressional candidate Brad Lander was detained in the area alongside a number of activists and American rabbis. Settler violence has long flared during the olive harvesting season, but in the years since the Oct. 7 attacks, violence has increased sharply, with Palestinians also seeing their olives stolen. According to the United Nations, at least 160 Israeli settler attacks linked to the olive harvesting season were recorded in the first two weeks of October alone. The U.N. said many of those attacks were carried out “under the protection of, or with the participation of, Israeli forces.” Netanyahu’s government has backed settler expansion in the West Bank despite international condemnation. The mounting settler violence has increasingly been described as terrorism by some global officials, including by U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.