Netanyahu seals off Hebron, readies West Bank lockdown

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, October 23, ordered Israeli forces to seal off Hebron and get ready to close the entire occupied West Bank. The order came hours after soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen who, according to the Israeli military, wounded five Israelis in an attack at a checkpoint near the city. The attack came four days before Israel's general election. Netanyahu also had his Likud party cancel its political events planned for that morning.france24.com+1

"I have instructed the IDF and security forces to impose an immediate closure on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full lockdown on all of Judea and Samaria starting today," Netanyahu said. He added that forces were "carrying out waves of widespread arrests" and vowed to "pursue Hamas terrorists and their dispatchers everywhere".nbcnews.com

Gun battle at checkpoint

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency service, said it got a report of multiple casualties at about 7:15 a.m. local time near Yehuda Junction. Its responders treated at least five people, two of them in critical condition. An AFP journalist saw two men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchange fire with Israeli forces at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint. Troops eventually killed both men next to a petrol station. The military said it found a large amount of ammunition in the attackers' vehicle and believes they planned a bigger attack.bbc.com+2

Palestinian and medical sources quoted by Al Jazeera put the number of wounded at six soldiers and said the gunfire lasted about 20 minutes. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that troops detained two Palestinians, raided homes in the Arroub refugee camp and put iron gates at entrances across the Hebron governorate. The army also closed Highway 35 in both directions and searched for any other assailants.aljazeera.com+1

Election backdrop

Likud said Netanyahu "gave the instruction to cancel all political events planned by Likud this morning following the grave attack at the Judea Junction". He is in a tight race for another term in the vote on Tuesday, October 27. Security is the main theme of his campaign, and his government has repeatedly warned, without giving evidence, that Israel's enemies could attack before the vote.nbcnews.com+2

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the attack showed that Palestinians' freedom of movement should be restricted. He argued that the lives of settlers and soldiers "are a million times more important than freedom of movement".france24.com

Rising West Bank tensions

The attack came during a wave of settler violence tied to the olive harvest. The United Nations recorded at least 160 settler attacks linked to the harvest in the first two weeks of October. It said many were carried out "under the protection of, or with the participation of, Israeli forces". How long the closure of the West Bank will last has not been announced.nbcnews.com