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.

Some 3,000 Palestinians in the Hebron area have been displaced from their homes 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 presents the operation as home searches and soldiers sitting idle. It leaves out that the raid also involves arrests and the demolition of structures, as Ynet reported the same day. Without this, a reader underestimates what the operation is doing to Hebron's residents.

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. ,” the soldier says.

The Times of Israel Community.

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What we found (2)

The Times of Israel reports that the army chief told Netanyahu there was no operational or legal reason to keep about 3,000 Palestinians from their Hebron homes, and that Netanyahu ordered the raid to continue. It gives the space to soldiers' complaints while the displaced Palestinians appear only as a number. It also leaves out the arrests and demolitions that Ynet reported the same day.

  1. One side gets the space

    Minor

    “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”

    Why this matters
    The Times of Israel closes the piece on a soldier's complaint that troops have been away from home for 28 days.
    The impression it gives
    The hardship of being kept from home in this story belongs mainly to the soldiers.
    The context
    The people kept from their homes are the 3,000 Palestinians the article itself counts as displaced. None of them, and no Hebron resident or official, is quoted. They appear only as a figure, while soldiers and a military source speak at length.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“Some 3,000 Palestinians in the Hebron area have been displaced from their homes”
    • Elsewhere in the article“Kan interviewed multiple soldiers participating in the operation”
    • 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 presents the operation as home searches and soldiers sitting idle. It leaves out that the raid also involves arrests and the demolition of structures, as Ynet reported the same day. Without this, a reader underestimates what the operation is doing to Hebron's residents.

    How we know

    Show where it belongs

What it gets right

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

    It says plainly that Palestinians are being kept out of their homes and that even the army chief says there is no legal basis for it.

  • “Some 3,000 Palestinians in the Hebron area have been displaced from their homes as a result of the operation”

    It gives the scale of the displacement and ties it directly to the military operation.

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

    It gives concrete figures that let the reader judge the stated security purpose against the harm done.

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