'We are scared': Palestinians in Hebron fear Israeli forces 'will demolish everything'

Play Brightcove video ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger hears from people in Hebron who still don't know why their homes were demolished, while Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo gives his analysis of the upcoming election in Israel In the hills above Hebron, the biggest city in the West Bank, a family pick through what’s left of their home. There are huge piles of rubble and electrical wiring, even the remains of a hot tub. The villa Riyad Imraish built was everything he dreamt of over the two decades he spent working in Saudi Arabia to pay for it.

Everything he owned, destroyed in a matter of minutes by an armed Israeli bulldozer on Friday night. “They said we had two minutes to leave the house or they would shoot everyone right here” his son Ahmad tells me. A home in the neighbourhood of Fash al-Hawa was demolished by Israeli forces. Credit: ITV News His younger brother Sanad has barely spoken since. He is a picture of shock sitting on the broken trampoline he used to spend hours playing on with his sister.

But the attack on their house, one of the finest in Hebron, didn’t come out of nowhere. On Friday morning two young Israeli soldiers were shot dead at a checkpoint by two Palestinians. Pulling down the homes of gunmen is standard Israeli military practice. Locals are still waiting for answers from the IDF. Credit: ITV News But there’s no claim the Imraishs were in any way involved, neither is there any answer when I repeatedly contact the Israeli military to ask why.

They are not the only family to have been thrown out of their home since the attack. The Hebron municipality say 3,171 people have been evicted from 500 homes. Among them are Amira and Aya Natsheh, sisters aged 16 and 15. They point out their family home to me from a hilltop above it because they can no longer get anywhere near. Soldiers stormed their district of Hebron in the early hours of Saturday, just after they’d gone to bed. The Israeli military had no immediate response when asked why this building in the Fash al-Hawa neighbourhood was demolished.

Credit: ITV News “They were so loud and they were shouting out to people to leave their houses” says Amira, explaining how her terrified family took only what they could carry. The Israeli military says it is conducting systematic searches for terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the area in an operation that is likely to last for several days. But after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of plans for the biggest military operation in the West Bank since 1967, when 300 thousand Palestinians were forcibly displaced.

With some of his far-right ministers also openly suggesting a Gaza-style assault, the sisters are understandably fearful about what lies ahead. Israel cordons off city in West Bank after two soldiers killed in attack A US charity plans to use AI to monitor its Gaza schools “We are scared” says Aya. “We can’t prevent what they will do. They will demolish everything and they don’t care. They want to change our land into theirs.” “You can’t know which home they’ll destroy” agrees Amira.

“They put random Xs on the houses and expect people to live with this” As we talk Israeli jets scream overhead. The military tell us it is just a training exercise in the area. Amira and Aya say it’s nothing new. The Israeli occupation is considered illegal by most of the world’s countries and the UN. But in a city littered with checkpoints, gates and watchtowers you wouldn’t know that and Amira and Aya have no idea if they’ll ever walk through the door of their home again.

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