West Bankupdated 38m ago2 min read
MapIsraeli Military Withdraws From Hebron After 10-Day Operation, UN Warns of Ethnic Cleansing
6 OtherMap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Israeli forces withdrew from Hebron after an 11-day operation, displacing about 3,300 Palestinians. The operation followed the killing of two Israeli soldiers.
Save coverage image
www.timesofisrael › idf-ends-controversial-11-day-hebron-operation-t... was read line by line by the Watchdog: 6.0. See the score →
Hebron operation ends
The Israeli military concluded its operations in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, and withdrew from the city after an Israeli military official announced the end of the incursion. The operation began after the October 23 attack in which two Israeli soldiers were killed, and the Israeli military official said that during the incursion four weapons and several bulletproof vests were seized.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of the risk of an “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also condemned the offensive. Palestinians returned to their homes damaged in Hebron after the Israeli Army completed a 10-day operation that, according to the UN, caused the displacement of more than 3,000 people in the city.
Displacement figures diverge
The Times of Israel reported that the 11-day operation displaced some 3,300 Palestinians, citing the Palestinian Authority’s WAFA news agency. The Jerusalem Post said that some 407 households, comprising 2,649 people, had been affected by the IDF's military action, according to the spokesperson for Hebron’s official Support and Relief Committee.
AFP described residents returning to trashed homes, and Muhannad al Tamimi said he found his house completely overturned, with “furniture and clothes scattered on the floor and mattresses off the beds.” The Times of Israel said the IDF reported capturing just four firearms after scanning hundreds of buildings, and it described an underground excavation near one of the gunmen’s homes being located by troops.
Withdrawal, legal fight
The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir’s recommendation to leave the area and allow the 2,000 evacuated Palestinians to return to their homes, leading to a confrontation that leaked to the media.
“There is no longer a security or humanitarian need that justifies preventing the return of the residents to their homes.”
The Jerusalem Post said the state told the court that, following security developments, “There is no longer a security or humanitarian need that justifies preventing the return of the residents to their homes.”
Adalah attorney Muna Haddad said: “For 10 days, the Israeli military forced some 5,000 Palestinians from their homes, demolished buildings, turned houses into military posts, and sealed off an entire city to ‘exact a price.’”
The Times of Israel said Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz had vowed that the army would “destroy” the Hebron neighborhood from which the gunmen hailed, but it reported that the raid was significantly more limited than those promises.