Israel imposed closures on the West Bank cities of Hebron and Halhul and ordered preparations for a wider closure of the territory after a shooting attack near Hebron killed two Israeli soldiers. This comes days ahead of Tuesday's much anticipated general election. https://x.com/i/web/status/2113604507305451817 This post can't be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated. You can activate them by clicking manage preferences .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops would evacuate residents from the Hebron neighborhood from which the attackers set out, conduct house-to-house searches, seize weapons and destroy terror infrastructure. He said the operation would follow the “successful, aggressive model” used in refugee camps. “We will consider extending this model to other cities as well,” Netanyahu said. His office earlier announced that he had instructed security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full West Bank closure. https://x.com/i/web/status/2113557925587452414 This post can't be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated.
You can activate them by clicking manage preferences . IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth said the military was launching a significant counterterrorism operation alongside the cordons around Hebron and Halhul. The IDF said soldiers and Border Police had entered Hebron and reached the attackers’ homes and those of other suspects. The military identified the soldiers killed at Yehuda Junction as Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon.
Both served in the Ari Battalion of the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Brigade. Three other soldiers were lightly wounded, the IDF said. 10 arrested over settler attacks: West Bank raids follow assaults on WaPo journalist, EU diplomats The two Palestinian gunmen, both from Hebron, were killed following an exchange of fire lasting about 20 minutes, the military said. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said a large quantity of ammunition found in their vehicle indicated they had intended to carry out a larger attack.
i24News reports the closure of Hebron and Halhul after two Israeli soldiers were killed, and never tells its reader that these are Palestinian cities under an occupation the ICJ has ruled unlawful. Every voice in the piece is Netanyahu or the military, and the Palestinians living under the closures are not heard at all.
Hedges the documented record
Serious
“Israel imposed closures on the West Bank cities of Hebron and Halhul and ordered preparations for a wider closure of the territory”
Why this matters
The article calls Hebron and Halhul "West Bank cities" and the area "the territory". It never uses the word occupied, here or anywhere else.
The impression it gives
A reader takes Israel's power to seal off Palestinian cities and the whole West Bank as ordinary state authority over its own land.
The context
The ICJ has found Israel's occupation of the West Bank unlawful. Other coverage of the same event describes Hebron as a Palestinian city in occupied territory. The whole story is about an occupying army closing occupied cities, and the article leaves that status out.
How we know
On the recordThe International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion found Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem unlawful.icj-cij.org (opens in a new tab)
Israel imposed closures on Hebron and Halhul, Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank, and ordered preparations to close the whole occupied territory after a shooting near Hebron killed two Israeli soldiers.
One side gets the space
Minor
“Avi Bluth said the military was launching a significant counterterrorism operation alongside the cordons around Hebron and Halhul”
Why this matters
The article quotes Netanyahu, his office, Bluth, the IOF and Zamir in turn. It gives no Palestinian voice: no resident, no mayor, no official of the cities being closed.
The impression it gives
A reader sees the closure and the raid only as the military and the prime minister describe them.
The context
The people of Hebron and Halhul face the closure, the house-to-house searches and the removal from their homes, and the article never hears from them. Other coverage of the operation quotes Hebron residents on the roadblocks.
How we know
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “mayor”.