Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a sweeping West Bank military operation "such as has not been carried out since the Six Day War" after a Palestinian gun attack killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Hebron on Friday, October 23, 2026. The announcement, made just four days before Israel's general election, sets the stage for the largest Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly 60 years.
Deadly Attack at Hebron Checkpoint
The attack unfolded on Friday morning at the Farsh al-Hawa (Yehuda Junction) military checkpoint south of Hebron, when two Palestinian gunmen exited a vehicle and opened fire with a handgun and an M16 rifle, sparking a roughly 20-minute gun battle that an AFP photographer witnessed. Israeli forces shot both attackers dead. Two Israeli soldiers, Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, were killed and three others lightly wounded, the IDF said.
The military said the soldiers had "prevented what could have been a major attack" on civilians, with a large quantity of ammunition found in the attackers' vehicle on Route 35. Israeli media named the attackers as Hamouda and Firas Jua'ba, both 27-year-old Hebron residents from the same family. Hamas praised the attack as a "heroic operation" and called it a "message to our Zionist enemy that our resistance continues," but did not claim responsibility. No response from the Palestinian Authority appeared in any reporting on the story.
Netanyahu's Response: Lockdown and House-to-House Sweeps
Visiting Hebron in a bulletproof vest, Netanyahu announced an immediate cordon of the city, "extensive waves of arrests," and a full West Bank lockdown starting Friday. "We will evacuate the residents, we will go from house to house, we will also seize the weapons there, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed," he said, adding, "We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely."
The prime minister said he and the defense minister were "considering a very extensive IDF operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since the Six Day War," and that "it is on the way." He said the military would apply the "Iron Wall" model used in the northern West Bank refugee camps in 2025, an operation that forcibly displaced tens of thousands of residents; the UN rights office says 33,362 refugees were still barred from returning as of July 2026.
Election Shadow and Hardline Demands
The crisis landed four days before Israel's general election on October 27, 2026, the country's first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. Netanyahu cancelled his Likud campaign events on Friday. His coalition partners moved quickly to stake out harder lines: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the immediate demolition of Palestinian buildings near the attack site, with Reuters documenting bulldozers at work as residents said their homes had no connection to the attackers. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority and banning all Palestinians in the West Bank from road travel.
AFP tallies more than 1,110 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, and the UN reports at least 96 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank in 2026. Human Rights Watch previously said the 2025 camp expulsions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, a claim Israel rejects.
Sources
- NDTV: "Will Destroy Terror Infra," Netanyahu After 2 Soldiers Killed In West Bank
- Reuters via Deccan Herald: Netanyahu Orders Hebron Lockdown, Home Demolitions
- The Wall Street Journal: Netanyahu Calls for West Bank Lockdown After Deadly Attack
- Arab News: Netanyahu Says Extensive West Bank Military Operation "On the Way"
Watch: Global News' video report on the Hebron checkpoint shooting and Netanyahu's West Bank lockdown order.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Movement Proposition (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0