Displaced Palestinians return to damaged Hebron quarter as Israeli troops withdraw

Item 1 of 7 A Palestinian man shows the damage to a door at his home, after the Israeli military ended an operation, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 2,2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma [1/7] A Palestinian man shows the damage to a door at his home, after the Israeli military ended an operation, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 2,2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab Summary Israeli troops end 10-day operation that displaced 3,000 people Operation followed killing of two Israeli soldiers at checkpoint Military says it demolished homes of the two gunmen Hebron woman describes raid on family home HEBRON, West Bank, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Palestinians returned to damaged homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Monday ‌after the Israeli military concluded a 10-day operation that the UN says displaced more than 3,000 people in the city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the operation after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a Hebron checkpoint on October 23. Both ​assailants were killed in the attack. Sign up here. The Israeli military, speaking through an unnamed military official, said the ​army withdrew on Monday. Soldiers "conducted thorough searches of multiple locations, detained and questioned ⁠suspects, and located and confiscated four weapons, several vests and additional military equipment," the official said. 'THEY BLEW ​UP THE DOOR AND WENT IN' Tamara Obeid cried as she returned home to find broken furniture, with toys ​and other possessions scattered on the floor.

"They entered the house in a very terrifying way," she said of the moment Israeli forces raided her home on October 23. "They blew up the door and went in. We could not bear it. ​The children were screaming. They followed me to the bedroom, and had the weapons pointed at my ​head. They threatened us. They handcuffed my husband and took him outside," she said. On Friday, Israel's military said it ‌had demolished the ⁠assailants' homes, one of which was a short distance from Obeid's house.

The military has also demolished other homes as well as shops, roads and factories in Hebron since the attack, according to local officials, though the scale of the demolitions is unclear. On Monday, a bulldozer cleared rubble and earth barricades, and Palestinian civil defence ​workers, security forces and other ​people stood in an ⁠alleyway strewn with rubble, where members of the security forces cordoned off the entrance to a building.

The Israeli operation prompted protests last week by Palestinians in ​Hebron, an ancient city where hundreds of Jewish settlers live among tens ​of thousands of ⁠Palestinians. The homes demolished on Friday had been occupied by the wives and children of the gunmen before the military forced Palestinians to leave the area, according to local residents. Violence has escalated in the West Bank since ⁠Hamas' October ​7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli military offensive ​in Gaza .

The West Bank violence has included a sharp rise in attacks by militant settlers on Palestinians, as well as sweeping ​Israeli military raids and Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Tom Perry and Andrew Heavens Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Suggested Topics: Middle East Human Rights X Facebook Linkedin Email Link Purchase Licensing Rights