Netanyahu Vows Large West Bank Operation After Deadly Checkpoint Attack Near Hebron

The Israeli military is tearing down homes and forcing hundreds of Palestinians out of a neighborhood in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, after an attack on an Israeli checkpoint that killed two soldiers and wounded three others.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by promising a military operation in the West Bank "on a scale not seen since the Six Day War," when Israel first occupied the territory almost 60 years ago. Speaking in a televised address from the site of the attack, near Hebron, he said: "We will act to demolish this place, to change it completely."

Netanyahu compared the plan to last year's Israeli assault on two long-standing Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank, which displaced tens of thousands of people. Human Rights Watch said those expulsions amounted to war crimes. Israel rejects that charge.

Bulldozers had already started flattening homes near the shooting site on Friday afternoon. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem urged foreign governments to step in to prevent "another wave of ethnic cleansing and war crimes."

The Israeli military told NPR that its soldiers were behind concrete barriers at the checkpoint when two gunmen opened fire. A firefight lasted about 20 minutes, until soldiers killed the attackers.

The episode comes during a surge of violence and land seizures by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. The United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory has described the situation as a "new level of dehumanization of Palestinians." Israel has also imposed widespread closures in Hebron, the most populous city in the occupied West Bank, making movement in and around it difficult. Israel routinely restricts movement across the territory with some 925 checkpoints, roadblocks, earth mounds and other barriers.

Analysts connect the scale of the response to Israel's national elections on October 27, arguing that Netanyahu wants to look strong to voters. Polls show Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, running neck and neck, and neither currently has enough support to form a government.

"For Netanyahu, his ticket before the election is, 'I'm Mr. Security,'" said Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "In order to show that he is the protector of Israel, he will take harsh measures in order to show the Israeli public that he supports them and he's defending them."

Other analysts share that view, seeing the operation more as an effort to stay in power than a carefully considered plan to improve Israel's long-term security. Citrinowicz called the eviction of families from the attackers' neighborhood, without evidence of any link to the gunmen, "collective punishment."

"The way to prevent [more attacks by Palestinians] is not collective punishment. It's by giving hope," Citrinowicz said, urging authorities to arrest those who want to carry out attacks while helping those who simply want to live peacefully, with a working economy and the things they need for stability.