Israel's lockdown of Hebron enters second week as UN warns of possible ethnic cleansing

Israeli forces have kept the West Bank city of Hebron under a sweeping military lockdown for a sixth consecutive day, after an attack that killed two soldiers on October 23 triggered one of the largest Israeli operations in a Palestinian city outside the northern refugee camps in recent years. United Nations officials say more than 3,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes, and the UN's top human rights official has warned that threats by Israeli officials to clear entire neighbourhoods raise "serious concerns of ethnic cleansing."

The operation, still underway this week, has become entangled with a dispute inside Israel's own security establishment over whether it should continue, even as the Israeli government insists it will not stop until what it calls the "Hamas issues" in the city are resolved.

What happened

The lockdown followed a shooting attack on a Friday reserve checkpoint near Hebron in which two Israeli soldiers were killed — named in Israeli reporting as Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20 — and three more were wounded. Both attackers were killed by Israeli forces. The Israeli military and internal security service announced, in a joint statement reported that night, that troops, Shin Bet personnel and Border Police had launched a counterterrorism operation in the Hebron area where the attackers were believed to have come from.

What was initially described by Israeli officials as a "limited" and "targeted" operation expanded within days into a closure of the entire city, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to prepare a broader lockdown across the rest of the occupied West Bank. Troops took over Palestinian homes in neighbourhoods including Khallat Manna and Dahiyat al-Zaytoun to use as observation posts and makeshift barracks, while residents elsewhere were ordered out, often by loudspeaker in the middle of the night.

The numbers, and why they keep changing

Displacement figures have risen steadily and vary depending on who is counting. In the first two days, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz put the number at about 2,000; the Hebron municipality's earlier estimate was roughly 1,500; and Hebron's mayor, Yousef al-Ja'bari, told Al Jazeera the figure had reached about 2,200. By October 26, Palestinian officials were citing more than 2,670 evacuated, and a UN briefing that day put the number at more than 3,000 Palestinians evacuated from their homes, most of them staying temporarily with relatives and in urgent need of shelter, food and cash assistance. The Palestinian Prisoners' Society said those displaced included 127 infants, 81 pregnant women, 26 people with disabilities, 134 people with chronic illnesses and 265 people over 60.

The Hebron municipality says about 35 hectares (86 acres) of property, mainly in the Ein Deir Baha and Farsh al-Hawa areas, have been destroyed or marked for demolition. At least 47 Palestinians have been detained in Hebron since the attack, according to Palestinian accounts, while Israeli forces also raided at least 15 other West Bank locations and arrested dozens more people. Settlers, meanwhile, established two new outposts on Palestinian-owned land in Yatta, south of Hebron, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Who is affected, and the dispute inside Israel's security establishment

Hebron is the West Bank's largest city, with roughly 200,000 residents, and its governorate — the most populous in the territory — is home to around 600,000 Palestinians. A UN briefing on October 26 said 11 schools serving about 4,700 students in or near the affected area had been disrupted, and that nearly 700 schools across the wider governorate, serving roughly 2,500 students, had temporarily shifted to remote learning because access and security restrictions made in-person attendance impossible for many families. "Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement between towns in the area remain tight," UN officials said, adding that UN partners were supporting Hebron's local authorities and helping officials meet residents' basic needs as the closure continues.

Inside Israel, the operation has opened a rare public rift between the political and military leadership. According to Ynet reporting, Israel's armed forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, told Netanyahu and Katz that the operation had run its course: troops had made arrests and found some weapons, but no large stockpiles, and keeping thousands of residents away from their homes for an extended period raised legal risks that outweighed the limited results. Netanyahu and Katz rejected that recommendation and ordered the operation to continue. Katz has said residents will not be allowed to return until the military has dealt with "all the Hamas issues in Hebron," and has compared the approach to Israel's year-long "Jenin refugee camp model" — a reference to the "Iron Wall" operation launched in the northern West Bank in January 2025, which displaced tens of thousands of people over several weeks and has remained in some form ever since.

International reaction

The closures drew concern from the UN almost immediately. At the UN Secretary-General's daily briefing on October 23, a spokesperson said António Guterres was "deeply concerned by the widespread closures imposed by Israel" and by reports of home demolitions and "possible displacements of Palestinian residents in Hebron," including the closure of the city's Ibrahim Mosque and the removal of its staff. Pressed on whether the measures amounted to collective punishment, the spokesperson declined to characterise them directly, saying "one can easily draw their own conclusions."

Three days later, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk went further. In a statement issued from Geneva and reported by Arab News, Türk said: "Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law," and said Israeli officials' declarations "indicate that the measures implemented are punitive in nature" and "designed to instil fear," adding, "This is unacceptable." He also cited "grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force" and called for displaced residents to be allowed home, with compensation for unlawful evictions and demolitions. The dispatch itself, not a direct quotation from Türk, characterized Israeli threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods as raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.

"Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law." — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Palestinian Authority, through Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa's office, has also called the measures "collective punishment." The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said they could constitute war crimes. Israeli officials have not formally responded to the "ethnic cleansing" characterisation; Katz's public remarks have focused instead on the security rationale for the continued closure, and on a security assessment that the city will remain closed until the military is satisfied it has located remaining members of the cell behind the attack.

What happens next

As of this week's October 28 UN briefing, the lockdown showed no sign of ending. A journalist told the UN spokesperson that Hebron was "still under collective punishment" and that several institutions had been raided that day; the spokesperson said he had no update on the city's status. Hebron's mayor and the Palestinian Authority continue to press for an immediate end to the closure and compensation for demolished property. Inside Israel, the disagreement between Zamir's military assessment and the Netanyahu-Katz political decision to continue remains unresolved, and officials familiar with the operation have given no public timetable for a withdrawal, even as it draws direct comparisons to last year's much longer "Iron Wall" campaign in the northern West Bank.