Al Jazeera English, on West Bank, 24 October 2026

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Israel raids towns, detains dozens of Palestinians in occupied West Bank

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Israeli forces have raided towns, detaining dozens of Palestinians, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced ordering a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank following an attack in the city of Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers. Israeli forces raided at least 15 towns in the northern West Bank, detaining dozens of Palestinians, Al Jazeera correspondents reported on Saturday. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Israel preparing full lockdown of occupied West Bank after Hebron gunfight list 2 of 3 Israeli roadblocks disrupt schools and medical care in West Bank village list 3 of 3 Israel locks down occupied West Bank after Hebron shooting end of list The military raids targeted several northern cities and towns, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya.

In Nablus, Israeli forces carried out arrests and raided Palestinian homes in the villages of Jalud and Qaryut. Arrests were also reported in Arrabeh and Burqin, near Jenin, while Israeli forces entered Tubas and the nearby town of Aqqaba. In the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli bulldozers demolished a three-storey building in Hebron, with families given five minutes to collect their belongings. Israeli forces also ordered hundreds of Palestinian families to in the Ein Deir Bahha area of Hebron and its surroundings.

Israeli troops also surrounded the home of one of the suspects in the shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in Hebron, while carrying out raids in the city’s al-Jalda neighbourhood. The Israeli army said late on Friday that its forces began an operation in Hebron that would last “for several days”, in addition to operations by other forces in “dozens” of areas across the West Bank. Further east, Israeli forces entered Jericho and the nearby Aqabat Jabr refugee camp. ‘A small prison’ With the lockdown, nearly 1,000 checkpoints and gates across the West Bank will be closed, affecting millions of Palestinians.

Advertisement Netanyahu gave the order on Friday, shortly after the Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinian gunmen who attacked a reserve battalion near the Israeli settlement of Telem, killing two soldiers. Israel’s ambulance service reported that at least three Israeli soldiers were injured in addition to the two who died. All Israeli settlements, including Telem, are illegal under international law. The attack and clampdown came amid heightened tensions across the Palestinian territory as Israeli settlers and soldiers engage in violent pogroms .

Attacks on olive harvesters have been rife as aggression has been on the rise before the coming Israeli elections on Tuesday. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to the killing of the Israeli soldiers by calling for Israel to take full control of the West Bank, in which the Israeli government is encouraging the construction of numerous settlements. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, said incitement from far-right Israeli ministers is making the situation worse.

The closure turns every city and village into “a small prison”, with checkpoints and gates blocking healthcare, the economy and education, he told Al Jazeera. He warned that collective punishment “will lead to explosions”.

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What we found (1)

Al Jazeera reports the raids, arrests, demolition and forced displacement in the occupied West Bank after the Hebron shooting, and names Israeli forces as the actors throughout. It states in its own voice that the settlements are illegal under international law and attributes the army's account of the shooting to the army. The one weakness is a single borrowed word, "evacuate", for what other outlets reported as expulsion.

  1. Uses the occupation's words

    Minor

    “forcibly evacuate their homes”

    Why this matters
    Al Jazeera uses "evacuate" for the removal of hundreds of families. The word is the army's term for moving people out for their own safety. "Forcibly" softens this but does not undo it.
    The impression it gives
    A reader may take the order as a protective clearance of the area rather than the expulsion of families from their homes.
    The context
    Other outlets reporting the same event describe Israeli forces expelling Palestinians and forcing them to flee, with homes marked and families barred from taking their vehicles.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

What it gets right

  • “All Israeli settlements, including Telem, are illegal under international law.”

    Al Jazeera states the settlements' illegality as fact in its own voice, in line with the ICJ's ruling, rather than as one side's view.

  • “Israeli bulldozers demolished a three-storey building in Hebron, with families given five minutes to collect their belongings.”

    The sentence names who demolished the building and tells the reader what it meant for the families inside.

  • “the Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinian gunmen”

    The label "gunmen" and the account of the killings are attributed to the Israeli military, not adopted in the outlet's own voice.

How other outlets reported it

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