Israeli Forces Demolish Homes Across Hebron, Displace About 2,500 Palestinians

Military bulldozers reduced homes and businesses to rubble across several blocks of Hebron over the weekend, forcing roughly 2,500 Palestinians from their homes, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), citing preliminary estimates from the Hebron municipality.

PCHR said the demolitions, concentrated in Ein Deir Baha and the surrounding neighbourhoods, along with homes, businesses and industrial sites in Farsh al-Hawa, affected an area of about 350 dunums, roughly 35 hectares, and displaced around 500 families. The group documented the destruction of a three-storey house, a car-parts commercial facility, and the perimeter walls of a tile and ceramics business yard. PCHR said the three-storey house was demolished despite its owner having obtained an interim court order following an earlier demolition notice.

Families were ordered out over military loudspeakers late Friday, PCHR said, with soldiers searching residents and vehicles at checkpoints as they fled. One displaced resident told the group soldiers gave no indication of when his family would be allowed to return. Israeli forces have since sealed the area and continued house-to-house searches.

The operation followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Hebron on Friday with Defence Minister Israel Katz, after an attack on an Israeli military checkpoint that officials say two Palestinian gunmen carried out from the neighbourhood.

"First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely. We are going to implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds."

Katz linked the operation directly to campaigns in Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, which displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians in 2025, saying "the Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron." Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, called for a campaign "exactly like in Gaza or Lebanon" and said he had personally ordered the immediate demolition of structures near the checkpoint shooting, describing them as illegally built.

The crackdown has extended beyond the demolitions. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces arrested 20 people overnight Saturday during raids across most of Hebron's neighbourhoods, with further raids in Dura, Yatta, as-Samu and Tarqumiya. Tear gas was fired during raids Sunday morning on al-Fawwar refugee camp and the town of Taffuh.

Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja'bari said the city and several neighbouring villages are under a complete blockade, with entrances sealed and movement restricted. The operation is unfolding days before Israel's general election on Tuesday, when the military says it will close all West Bank land crossings and bar Palestinian workers from settlements and the Jordan Valley, with restrictions extending to industrial zones.