Key takeaways
- Two Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers fought for over 20 minutes at Hebron's northern entrance on 23 October, wounding five Israelis.
- Netanyahu ordered Hebron closed and lockdown preparations across the West Bank four days before Israel's 27 October election.
- Ben-Gvir demanded the Palestinian Authority be dismantled, though nothing in the reporting links it to the shooting.
Two Palestinian men and Israeli soldiers fought a gunbattle lasting more than 20 minutes at the northern entrance to Hebron on Friday morning, 23 October. Five Israelis were wounded and both gunmen were killed. The shooting began around 07:15 local time at Yehuda Junction, known to Palestinians as the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, on Highway 35 near the settlement of Telem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later ordered the Israeli military to close Hebron and prepare a full lockdown of "Judea and Samaria", the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military said the men arrived by vehicle with an assault rifle, a handgun and a large quantity of ammunition. Its initial assessment is that they may have meant to bypass the checkpoint and reach civilians on Route 35. Instead they met about four soldiers and opened fire. Footage shows troops taking cover behind an ambulance as they pulled out the wounded during a gun battle that lasted more than 20 minutes. Reinforcements returned fire and killed both men. Palestinian media named them as Mohammad (Hamouda) and Firas Jua'ba, both 27 and from the same Hebron family.
Gates, earth mounds and open settler roads
Magen David Adom, Israel's national ambulance service, treated the wounded on site. Two were critically wounded and three lightly, MDA said. Authorities did not initially separate soldiers from civilians among them.
Troops then sealed Hebron and the neighboring town of Halhul. Anadolu, the Turkish news agency, reported that soldiers shut every city entrance with heavy iron gates, piled earth across secondary roads and raided buildings to seize security-camera footage.
Netanyahu convened the Security Cabinet with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the head of the Shin Bet (Israel's domestic security service) and the National Security Council. He wrote on X: "I have instructed the IDF and the security forces to immediately impose a closure on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full lockdown across all of Judea and Samaria starting today." He also asked for all Likud political meetings planned for Friday to be cancelled.
The two measures differ in scope. Hebron is physically blockaded. The wider lockdown is a directive and a preparation order. Reports describe more checkpoints and vehicle inspections around Nablus, Jericho and Jenin, but the territory is not sealed. The burden falls unevenly. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face gates and severed routes between villages and cities, while roads used by settlers remain open. The Associated Press reported that this is the fourth time in the past month that Israel has imposed restrictions across the West Bank.
Observers are reading: How the election, coalition pressure and the olive harvest combine to shape the West Bank closure.
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What the closure leaves in place
Hebron's blockade is active. The territory-wide lockdown remains, for now, an order and a preparation. Whether it hardens after the vote has not been announced.
The human cost is already high. An AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data puts the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since 7 October 2023 at 1,113, while the UN human rights office (OHCHR) later cited 1,123 killed in the occupied territory. Israeli figures cited by AFP show at least 49 Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks or military operations over the same period, while the UN puts the number killed in the West Bank at 41.
Closure has been a recurring instrument this year. Israel told Britain to close its consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days in September. In May it ordered Israeli control in Gaza expanded to 70 percent of the territory. Meanwhile, the question of who governs Palestinians, left open at the Board of Peace's inaugural meeting in February, sits beside calls to dismantle the Palestinian Authority. If the pattern of recent weeks holds, emergency measures announced as temporary may deepen the fragmentation of the West Bank.
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