Netanyahu launches major West Bank operation after Israeli soldiers killed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a major military operation in the occupied West Bank on Friday after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers in an attack near Hebron, days ahead of Israeli elections in which security has been a central focus.

Netanyahu is locked in a tight race to keep his job in Tuesday's vote, having campaigned on promises to keep Israelis safe, and he and his right-wing allies visited the scene of the attack to pledge an even harder line on West Bank militancy.

The first steps would see Hebron residents displaced, homes searched and "terrorist infrastructure" destroyed, the premier said, threatening operations on a scale unseen since Israel captured the Palestinian territory in 1967.

Militant group Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the attack as a "heroic operation" and called on supporters to carry out more.

A Hebron-based AFP photographer heading to another assignment witnessed the gun battle break out at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint between soldiers and two Palestinian men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle, with Israeli forces eventually shooting the attackers dead.

The army later said that two of its soldiers "fell in combat in the Judea Junction" area, with three others wounded.

Netanyahu in a statement lauded the soldiers' response, crediting them with having "prevented what could have been a major attack" and ordering a lockdown in the West Bank.

Visiting Hebron later in the day, the premier said he and Defence Minister Israel Katz were "considering a very extensive IDF (army) operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since" the 1967 war.

"The IDF is ready to execute it and we will set the timing, but it is on the way," he added.

The first step would see Israeli forces "enter the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure".

He said the military would apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, the scene of a large-scale operation launched in January 2025 that the UN said forcibly displaced thousands.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from "plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres through a spokesman voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on all sides.

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Israel army says two soldiers killed in West Bank attack earlier

'Exactly like in Gaza'

The military said it had "launched offensive counter-terrorism operations in the Hebron area", adding that troops were raiding homes of the suspects and others.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position within the defence ministry, later announced that building demolitions were underway.

In a video from the area, he said authorities were "sending an unequivocal message to our enemies: if you mess with the Jews, you will pay a very painful price."

Earlier in the day he had called for a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank "exactly like in Gaza".

"In the next government this will be one of the first measures that we must demand and apply."

Also visiting the scene, National Security Minister and far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir said the Ramallah-based "Palestinian Authority must be dismantled".

"It is impossible for there to be an authority within Judea and Samaria that incites murder, calls for murder, and works for murder," he told reporters.

No evidence suggests that the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, was connected to Friday's attack.

Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich are especially vocal champions of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have proliferated under Netanyahu's government but are illegal under international law.

Hamas praises attack

Hamas, which carried out the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, hailed Friday's shooting as a "natural and legitimate response to the ongoing crimes and brutal attacks against our people".

Netanyahu vowed to "pursue Hamas terrorists" everywhere, adding: "You have no place to hide."

Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief who is Netanyahu's top rival in the upcoming vote, likewise praised the response by troops, and said he was praying "for the complete and quick recovery of the injured".

The incident comes as tensions soar in the West Bank, including over attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian olive harvesters.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,117 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli figures show at least 51 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.