Israeli troops razed a neighborhood of Hebron, driving out hundreds of families as collective punishment for a militant attack on a military checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said.
The Hebron Municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or slated for destruction and that around 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes on Saturday afternoon in the Ein Deir Baha district. The entire city of 250,000 residents was cordoned off with checkpoints at every entry point.
Videos sent by a Hebron resident showed a substantially devastated area, with every house for several blocks razed in an urban area. One video showed soldiers marking Palestinian homes with a tattooed black cross, another showed a bulldozer destroying a stone wall on a hillside, and another showed a large residential building adorned with Israeli flags.
The people said the building was the home of a prominent Hebron family that had been requisitioned as a temporary military headquarters.
The large-scale demolitions follow an attack Friday on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron by two gunmen. After a 20-minute firefight, two Israeli soldiers were killed, three wounded and the two gunmen were also killed.
Israeli elections are in four days and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the scene of the attack to promise an immediate and fierce response.
Netanyahu said Israel would “act to destroy this place.” Smotrich, who is running in the election in a small coalition party, was filmed wearing a bulletproof vest in front of a Palestinian building being demolished. He said he had ordered “the immediate demolition of a large row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the site of the attack.”
Smotrich also called for “a comprehensive military campaign…just like in Gaza and Lebanon.” Ein Deir Baha, the center of the demolitions, is believed to be the home district of the two gunmen.
A Hebron municipality spokesperson said around 300 families had been evicted. Some had taken refuge with friends or relatives, while the municipality said it had opened community halls and children’s play areas to shelter others.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that Israel planned to move an additional 2,500 people. “We are collectively being punished for something we neither did nor supported,” said Issa Amro, a civil rights activist in Hebron. “Our suffering is being turned into political fodder for Israeli elections, while innocent families pay the price. »
Amro said her sister’s family was among hundreds forced from their homes.
“We’re talking about hundreds of families who have left their homes because of this, and they have no connection to what happened yesterday (Friday),” Amro said in a telephone interview. “It’s a very broad area and we don’t know what’s going on, whether it’s just election propaganda or whether it’s a serious plan based on decisions about what to do after the election.”
The Israeli army was contacted for comment on the operations and videos showing extensive damage.
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