Israel to Close All West Bank Land Crossings on Election Day
Seven Lights
Israel will close all land crossings with the West Bank on Tuesday’s parliamentary election and bar Palestinian workers from entering Israeli communities and settlements, the military said Sunday, days after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in the occupied territory.
The Israel Defense Forces said it would enforce a ban on the entry and exit of Palestinian workers throughout the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, including industrial zones, and close all land crossings on election day. Most workers will also be barred from settlements from Sunday, with exceptions for industrial zones and a limited number of other areas. Before the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, more than 100,000 Palestinian workers held permits to enter Israel; only a small fraction have had them restored since.
The announcement followed a Friday attack on a checkpoint near Hebron in which two gunmen shot dead two Israeli soldiers and wounded three more before being killed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a heavy price and said an operation was under way on a scale not seen since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.
In Hebron, Israeli forces pushed into the city, demolished homes and businesses and displaced around 2,000 residents, Defence Minister Israel Katz said. Mr. Katz said they “will not be allowed to return … until we’ve finished dealing with all the Hamas issues in Hebron.” Footage shared online showed at least one whole street flattened. The military had cordoned off Hebron, home to some 200,000 Palestinians, heavily restricting movement. Israeli rights groups have criticised the demolition of homes of suspected attackers as collective punishment.
The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure on Israel. Hebron’s mayor, Youssef al-Jaabari, said the operation was being “driven by the elections,” with Mr. Netanyahu and his ministers seeking the votes of the far right and the settlers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, said he personally ordered the “immediate demolition of a row of illegal structures” after the shooting.
The crackdown comes as Mr. Netanyahu faces a tight re-election race against Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, with the two polling neck-and-neck. On Saturday thousands gathered in Tel Aviv at a rally organised by the October Council, a group of families of attack victims and hostages, demanding a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, 2023. The military said the Hebron operation would last several days, and Mr. Netanyahu suggested further action was coming.