INTERVIEW – Over 2,200 Palestinians displaced in Hebron amid Israeli offensive: Mayor

By Layan Bsharat and Rania Abushamala

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL (AA) - The Israeli army has forced more than 2,200 Palestinians from their homes and demolished five commercial and industrial facilities and a three-story residential building amid a large-scale military offensive in Hebron in the southern West Bank, the city’s mayor said.

Speaking in an interview with Anadolu, Yousef al-Jabari said the forced evacuations affected Deir Bahha and parts of Al-Jilda in western Hebron, an area that covers approximately 330 dunams (330,000 square meters), and contains more than 495 housing units.

He said Israeli forces surrounded Deir Bahha and Al-Jilda and used loudspeakers to order residents out of their homes.

“Those displaced include children, women, young men and older people,” he said. Some residents initially refused to leave before troops stormed their homes and forced them out.

On Saturday, Hebron municipality said that around 1,500 Palestinians from 250 families had been displaced, before the mayor updated the figure to over 2,200 people.

Al-Jabari did not specify where the displaced residents had gone, while witnesses said some families sought refuge in other West Bank towns and villages.

In a separate count covering three neighborhoods, Riyad Khamis, a media official with a local committee supporting affected families, told Anadolu that more than 380 Palestinian families had been forced from their homes in Deir Bahha, Al-Jilda and Khirbet al-Maghariba.

The Israeli army launched its offensive on Friday following a shooting that killed two Israeli soldiers in the Farsh al-Hawa area at the city’s northwestern entrance.

Khamis said the affected neighborhoods form a contiguous residential area within Area A, where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to exercise civil and security control under the Oslo Accords.

The neighborhoods are “located far from settlements, outposts or settler roads,” he said.

- Collective punishment

Al-Jabari said the Israeli army closed Hebron’s entrances, preventing Palestinians from entering or leaving.

Israeli forces also closed the Ibrahimi Mosque and prevented prayers, as troops and military vehicles deployed across the city, he said.

Streets have become largely deserted because of the siege and movement restrictions, the mayor said, describing the measures as a “policy of collective punishment.”

Al-Jabari accused Israeli authorities of using Friday’s attack to intensify measures against Hebron’s residents ahead of Tuesday’s Israeli elections.

He said the escalation aimed to bolster occupiers’ support for the far right.

Following Friday’s attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a wider military operation in the occupied West Bank that he described as unprecedented since the 1967 war, including evacuating Palestinian neighborhoods and raiding homes.

The Israeli siege has forced hundreds of businesses in Hebron and neighboring villages to close because workers cannot reach their workplaces and goods cannot move in or out, al-Jabari said.

“Israeli forces have continued demolishing commercial and industrial facilities and residential buildings since Friday,” he added.

Al-Jabari said the municipality declared a state of emergency in the area and deployed teams to assist displaced residents.

“Municipal teams are working to secure shelter for displaced families, assess residents’ needs and address damage to roads, water networks and sewage infrastructure,” he said.

The offensive comes amid escalating Israeli army and occupier attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

The attacks have included killings, arrests, demolitions of homes and other structures, destruction of agricultural land and displacement of Palestinian communities, alongside settlement expansion.

Rania R.a. Abushamala