Times of Israel, on West Bank, 26 October 2026

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Report: IDF chief tells Netanyahu there's no justification for keeping ...

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Report: IDF chief tells Netanyahu there’s no justification for keeping Palestinians from their homes, but PM orders Hebron op to continue

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly rebuffed a recommendation from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to end the army’s ongoing operation in the West Bank city of Hebron, even though the latter explained that the objectives have already been met.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that as early as Saturday night, the IDF wanted to announce that the operation was winding down after it completed a day of searches of homes in the area.

But Netanyahu has insisted that the operation continue, against the backdrop of Tuesday’s election.

as a result of the operation, which was launched after Palestinian gunmen opened fire on troops at a checkpoint in the city, killing two.

Netanyahu held a situational assessment with the military brass on Sunday at the Tel Nof air base, during which Zamir explained that there was no operational justification for the continuation of the IDF’s Hebron raid and no legal justification for continuing to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes.

A military source tells Kan that the goals of the operation — establishing deterrence, locating terror infrastructure and gathering intelligence — have been met. Troops have scanned 500 structures in the city, but found only two guns to seize.

Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture

The article describes the operation as searches of homes and displacement. It leaves out that troops were also arresting people and demolishing structures in Hebron, as Ynet reported the same day. Without this, a reader thinks the raid was limited to weapons searches.

How we know

Kan interviewed multiple soldiers participating in the operation who indicated that it is no longer serving any strategic purpose.

“We’re just sitting at these locations doing nothing. We conducted searches, looked for weaponry and found what there was to find,” one soldier is quoted as having said.

“Right now, we’re just wasting time,” the soldier adds.

“You can always find another handgun or another Hamas flag, but that’s not the objective. There are soldiers here who haven’t been home for 28 days, simply because someone doesn’t want to admit that the operation has ended,” the soldier says.

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What we found (2)

The Times of Israel reports that the IOF chief of staff told Netanyahu the Hebron raid had met its goals and had no legal basis for keeping Palestinians from their homes, and that Netanyahu ordered it to continue. The report attributes its claims clearly and calls the operation a raid. It counts the 3,000 displaced Palestinians but quotes only soldiers, including one complaining that troops have not been home for 28 days.

  1. One side gets the space

    Minor

    “Some 3,000 Palestinians in the Hebron area have been displaced from their homes”

    Why this matters
    The words "Some 3,000 Palestinians" are the only place the people pushed out of their homes appear. They are given a number and nothing else.
    The impression it gives
    A reader learns the cost of the raid to Palestinians only as a figure. The hardship told in human terms is the soldiers' boredom and time away from home.
    The context
    The article gives several paragraphs to a soldier's complaint, including that troops "haven't been home for 28 days". No displaced resident, local official or Palestinian voice is quoted, though the story is about keeping these people from their homes.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“There are soldiers here who haven’t been home for 28 days”
    • On the recordReporting on Israel's assault on Gaza and on the Greens' Zionism motion has given Israeli, pro-Israel and Israeli-government sources far more space than Palestinian voices, who are quoted least when the story concerns them.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

  2. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Minor

    What is missing

    The article describes the operation as searches of homes and displacement. It leaves out that troops were also arresting people and demolishing structures in Hebron, as Ynet reported the same day. Without this, a reader thinks the raid was limited to weapons searches.

    How we know

    Show where it belongs

What it gets right

  • “the IDF’s Hebron raid”

    The outlet calls the operation a raid, not a security operation.

  • “no legal justification for continuing to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes”

    It reports plainly that Palestinians are being kept from their homes and that the army's own chief saw no legal basis for it.

  • “Troops have scanned 500 structures in the city, but found only two guns to seize.”

    It gives a concrete figure that lets the reader judge the stated purpose of the raid against its results.

How other outlets reported it

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