While Israelis go to the polls this week in one of the most consequential elections in years, many Palestinians in the West Bank have been confined to their homes or neighbourhoods as a wave of Israeli military operations around Hebron continues.
asserted
wave → go → Hebron
The West Bank city has been in a state of lockdown since two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an army checkpoint at Hebron’s northern entrance on Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding three.
asserted
gunmen → open → three
After the suspects were killed, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the isolation of Hebron and said troops would go house to house in the gunmen’s neighbourhood.
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troops → kill → neighbourhood
“We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” he proclaimed.
asserted
he → act → it
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panel → change → Gaza
3‘Everything destroyed’: Hebron businesses count cost of Israeli assault
What followed has been a mass displacement operation in the Hebron area, echoing last year’s military expulsions of three refugee camps, alongside widespread destruction in the neighbourhoods targeted by the army, evoking scenes out of Gaza.
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followed → destroy → Gaza
During the weekend, soldiers ordered residents of al-Jalda and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods out by loudspeaker, according to residents.
uncertain
soldiers → order → residents
Thousands have been forced out of their homes already, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying people would not be allowed back “until we’ve finished dealing with all the Hamas issues in Hebron”.
asserted
we → force → Hebron
By Monday, the governorate’s fourth day under closure, at least 3,171 Palestinians from 488 families had been forced out, according to Hebron Municipality data cited by the Wafa news agency.
uncertain
Palestinians → force → agency
Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin said Israeli forces had searched more than 500 homes, arrested more than 70 people and fragmented the city with 128 closed gates and 120 checkpoints.
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forces → say → gates
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says the displaced include 127 infants, 81 pregnant women and 26 people with disabilities, and that at least 47 people have been detained in Hebron since Friday.
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people → say → Friday
Bulldozers razed a three-apartment building belonging to Riyad Amrish, as well as a tile and ceramics factory, an auto-parts shop and other businesses in Farsh al-Hawa.
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Bulldozers → raze → Hawa
Israel’s Channel 12 said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the demolitions.
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Smotrich → say → demolitions
Israeli NGO B’Tselem warned the operation amounts to “collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.
Sieges at every scale
But Hebron is only the most prominent of multiple sieges happening at different scales, with years-long efforts to strategically encircle Palestinian communities in the West Bank now being employed to devastating effect:
- Homes: The three-week siege by Israeli settlers of the family of Yusuf Shanaran in Wadi al-Rakheem, Masafer Yatta continues, with the family unable to leave or receive aid for days at a time without army coordination, Shanaran told Al Jazeera on Monday.
uncertain
Shanaran → warn → Monday
In Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, village Mayor Marwan Sabah said Mohammad al-Obaiyat’s 1954 house received a demolition order with a November 11 deadline after months with a gate blocking its road.
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gate → say → road
Settlers have since been filmed attempting to break into the family home, which has been besieged for nearly a month, with few supplies entering during that time.
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supplies → film → time
Madama, south of Nablus, is only just emerging from a two-week siege of its four entrances, with heavy restrictions remaining at its just-opened northern entrance, according to villagers.
uncertain
restrictions → emerge → villagers
A kindergarten principal there told Al Jazeera she lifts children over the barrier one by one.
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she → tell → one
Twelve Masafer Yatta communities in the southern West Bank were cut off for several days, with about 50 teachers unable to reach their schools, and Wafa reported that Bethlehem governorate’s roads were closed for several days.
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roads → cut → days
The Israeli army barred Palestinian workers from illegal Israeli settlements on Sunday and Monday and will close all crossings on election day.
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army → bar → day
The only Palestinians who can vote – Palestinian citizens of Israel – may face issues at the polls, too; Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu’s Likud party was preparing to challenge results from Arab polling stations before a vote had been cast.
uncertain
vote → vote → stations
This year’s olive harvest has drawn unprecedented levels of settler pogroms, theft and closed-military-zone orders.
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harvest → draw → pogroms
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission has counted 482 attacks on the harvest by Sunday across nine governorates, Wafa reported.
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Wafa → count → governorates
At the same time, Israel released nine of 10 settlers arrested following last week’s attacks on a foreign journalist and diplomats.
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Israel → release → journalist
The attacks have continued undeterred.
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attacks → continue → ?
Wafa reported 17 attacks on farmers and their property on Thursday, and the commission documented 21 in 12 hours on Friday.
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commission → report → Friday
The past week’s harvest-related incidents fall into a handful of repeating patterns:
- Theft of olives and equipment in at least a dozen villages, including Sinjil, Silwad, Berin, Beit Iksa, al-Lubban Asharqiya, Kafr Malek, Ein Arik and Deir Ballut, according to Wafa and local reports.
uncertain
incidents → relate → Wafa
Near Immatin, at least 25 masked settlers sent three tractors and two trailers rolling down a hillside, destroying the equipment and olives on board.
- Assaults in at least 15 places, among them Burin, where stones left three farmers with head wounds; Ein Arik, where The Times of Israel reported a farmer suffered fractures; and Beit Iksa, al-Lubban Asharqiya and Kafr Malek, where pickers were pepper-sprayed.
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pickers → send → fractures
Settlers fired live rounds at pickers in Berin and Osarin, and smashed cars and trucks in Marda, Wad Qaddoum and Sinjil, Wafa and local monitors reported.
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monitors → fire → Marda
Fifteen farmers were detained in as-Sawiya on Sunday.
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farmers → detain → Sunday
In Beit Iksa, where the harvest had been coordinated with the Israeli Civil Administration, Mohammed al-Kiswani was pepper-sprayed and detained; settlers told farmers they would never harvest “with or without coordination”.
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they → coordinate → coordination
Land at Deir Jarir and Turmus Aya was declared a closed military zone without orders shown, Ayed Jafry reported – and far-right influencers were brought to film the expulsions for campaign content.
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influencers → declare → content
Settlers burned dozens of trees in Burqa on Friday, keeping Palestinian Civil Defence crews out, according to Wafa; trees were set on fire in Immatin, Salem and Beit Furik; and a bulldozer uprooted hundreds in Madama, according to villagers.
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bulldozer → burn → villagers
Soldiers uprooted dozens more in Deir Qaddis for a settler road and posted a notice at al-Mughayyir ordering hundreds of trees uprooted and in Khirbet Abu Falah for a “security buffer zone”, giving residents 24 hours to object, Jafry reported.
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Jafry → uproot → hours
In Burqa, settlers set fire on Tuesday to a memorial to Palestinian residents killed and, an hour later, to the home of Jamal Bajes, a Palestinian-American – the second arson at his house in recent months, according to local reports.
uncertain
settlers → set → reports
Local activist networks reported a home was burned in Deir Abu Mishal, and Wafa said settlers tried to set another ablaze in Burin under army protection.
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settlers → report → protection
Those joining the harvests in solidarity were targeted, too.
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Those → join → solidarity
United States Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was among about 80 volunteers detained near Nahalin on Wednesday and released with a “warning”; Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused him of “harvesting headlines”.
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Ministry → detain → headlines
Gaza: Managed scarcity as killings continue
The last week in Gaza saw at least 37 more Palestinians killed as Israel’s daily attacks continued.
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attacks → manage → Gaza
Monday’s daily report from the Gaza Ministry of Health alone recorded 11 deaths – eight newly killed, three recovered from rubble – and 35 wounded, taking the toll since the October 2025 “ceasefire” to 1,559 killed and 5,608 wounded, with a cumulative toll of 74,555.
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report → record → 74,555
…and 3 more, not listed.
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