Israeli soldiers gather at the scene of an earlier fire exchange between armed Palestinians and Israeli forces following an incident at the norther checkpoint of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on October 23, 2026. (AFP Photo)
An attack wounded five Israelis on Oct. 23, leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a lockdown in the occupied West Bank days before Israeli elections.
Netanyahu, facing a tight race for a new term in the Oct. 27 vote, said that Israeli troops prevented what could have been a major attack, with the two assailants allegedly carrying a large quantity of ammunition in their vehicle.
Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the attack as a “heroic operation” and called for more.
A Hebron-based AFP photographer who was en route to another assignment witnessed the gun battle break out at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint near the Palestinian city, and saw two Palestinian men
armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces.
Israeli forces eventually shot and killed the attackers, with the AFP journalist seeing their lifeless bodies on the ground next to a petrol station as troops patrolled all around.
The Israeli military said soldiers had rushed to the Judea Junction area after the early-morning shooting and “eliminated two terrorists.”
With the clock counting down to election day, Netanyahu called for all Likud party political meetings to be cancelled on Oct. 23 due to the attack.
“I salute the courage of our soldiers who acted with determination and prevented what could have been a major attack,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“I have instructed the IDF [army] and security forces to impose an immediate cordon on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full lockdown of all of Judea and Samaria starting today,” Netanyahu said, using the biblical name for the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
He added that troops were “carrying out stepped-up operations to thwart terrorist activities and are conducting large-scale waves of arrests.”
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 called for a fresh military offensive “exactly like in Gaza” in the West Bank.
“There is no other option but a comprehensive military campaign in Judea and Samaria to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, collect weapons and eliminate terrorists. Exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Smotrich, who also holds a position within the Defense Ministry.
“In the next government this will be one of the first measures that we must demand and apply.”
