Thousands displaced as Israeli army continues offensive in West Bank’s Hebron

The Israeli army continued a large-scale offensive in the West Bank city of Hebron for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, forcing nearly 5,000 Palestinians from their homes. The Hebron municipality said in a statement that 4,969 Palestinians from 780 families have been forcibly displaced from the Deir Bahha and Al-Jilda areas since the Israeli military campaign began on Friday. Among those displaced are 336 infants, 441 elderly people, 216 pregnant and nursing women, 44 people with disabilities and 312 people suffering from chronic illnesses, the statement said.

The municipality said the figures document families forced out from their homes since the start of the Israeli campaign amid growing humanitarian consequences, particularly for people requiring special care. The army has shut all entrances to Hebron and surrounding villages since Friday following a shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers. Anadolu footage showed Palestinians being stopped, searched and mistreated by Israeli forces at military checkpoints near Al-Jilda Roundabout.

Witnesses said new military reinforcements also arrived in Ein Deir Baha, where Israeli forces have taken over several Palestinian buildings and turned them into military posts. According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, the Israeli army has arrested 85 Palestinians across Hebron governorate since Friday. Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested at least nine Palestinians in military raids and closed all main entrances to Ramallah.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces raided the eastern neighborhood of Jenin as well as the towns of Meithalun, Jaba and Qabatiya, arresting at least six Palestinians, according to local sources. A Palestinian man was detained during a raid on Aqraba, southeast of Nablus, while Israeli forces stormed the southern Al-Hawouz area of Qaffin in Tulkarm governorate and raided a home in the town’s western neighborhood. In the central West Bank, Israeli forces closed all main entrances to Ramallah, including the Ein Sinya and Atara checkpoints, the Rawabi gate and the Nabi Saleh and Aboud gates, and set up additional checkpoints on alternative roads.

In Al-Bireh, the army turned a Palestinian home into a military post, held four residents inside and confiscated their phones, according to local sources. Palestinian farmers were also expelled from their land in Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, while Israeli forces raided Tuqu southeast of Bethlehem with tracked military vehicles. In Hebron governorate, Israeli forces also repeatedly raided the town of Taffuh and searched the homes of former prisoners.

Israeli troops assaulted a Palestinian man in the Hawara area south of Hebron before arresting him and his son, according to local sources. Occupier violence Separately, Israeli occupiers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles early Tuesday in the village of Umm Safa, west of Ramallah in the central West Bank. Municipal chief Marwan Sabah told Anadolu that a group of occupiers stormed the village around midnight and set three vehicles ablaze.

“Confrontations broke out between residents and the attackers, forcing the occupiers to withdraw,” he said. “Umm Safa has repeatedly come under attack by Israeli occupiers involving assaults on residents, vehicle arson, intimidation and harassment,” Sabah said. He added that occupiers have seized large areas of the village’s land. Israeli occupiers also established a settlement outpost at the northern entrance to Al-Bireh overlooking the Al-Balou neighborhood, the Bedouin rights group Al-Baidar said.

According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli occupiers attempted to establish 21 new settlement outposts across the West Bank in September, including 10 in Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate. The incidents come amid intensified Israeli army raids and attacks by Israeli occupiers against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.