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Netanyahu Locks Down West Bank, Launches Massive Operation After Two IDF Soldiers Killed

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Authored...

Just a few days away from Israel's national elections, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a major new military and security operation in the occupied West Bank late Friday into Saturday. It is expected to continue through next week, when Israelis head to the polls.

Mass arrests are being carried out, as well as home and neighborhood demolitions. The action follows a Friday incident where two Palestinian gunmen shot and killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Hebron.

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The suspected gunmen were shot dead in the immediate security response, and the West Bank was immediately put on full lock-down, amid Israeli house-to-house searches in the neighborhood where the attackers were believed to be from. The attackers had each reportedly been armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun.

"We will act to destroy this place, ⁠to change it completely," Netanyahu said. Already there are reports that family members and relatives of the two shooters have had their homes demolished, with area residents forcibly displaced.

The prime minister said further, "When we win the election, we’ll finish the job. We’ve completed 90 percent; we need to take it all the way, that means bringing down the Iranian regime and finishing off Hamas and Hezbollah."

And so the timing of the decision to lock down the whole of the West Bank is obviously politically driven to a large degree, in order to signal Israel domestically.

Al Jazeera reports that already some 2,200 local Palestinians have been expelled from their homes:

  • Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari tells Al Jazeera around 2,200 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the city’s al-Jalda and Ein Deir Bahha neighbourhoods, as Israeli forces continue military operation in the occupied West Bank.
  • Israeli forces arrest scores of Palestinians across the West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club rights group says, with raids reported in 15 areas, including Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Al-Bireh and Birzeit.

Tensions were already soaring even more this latest attack on an Israeli checkpoint, and so this new large-scale operation could bring more such incidents, given Palestinians perceive that the likely end goal of Israeli forces is to eradicate their existence from the land.

Reports of large iron gates erected around Hebron:

Israeli rights group B’Tselem has condemned the action, warning against "collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes."

The IDF military has responded to mounting criticism by saying it is allowing Hebron and other residents viable exit points.

"The forces have begun conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches throughout the area to locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure and weapons, while questioning suspects," the IDF and Shin Bet announced in the statement.

"The operation is targeted and limited to the area from which the terrorists operated, and is expected to continue for several days," it added. "Residents living in the area will be able to exit through three designated checkpoints after questioning," the statement indicated further.

The military would also be "demolishing illegal structures that could pose a security threat at the site of the encounter," it said. But some international monitors have pointed to another operation that paves the way for a land grab and Jewish settler expansion under the guise of a counter-terror operation. 

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