Key facts
- Hundreds of families were evicted from their homes in Hebron.
- About 1,500 people were displaced by Saturday afternoon.
- 35 hectares of the Ein Deir Baha neighborhood were destroyed or marked for demolition.
Israeli soldiers razed a neighborhood in Hebron on Saturday, driving out hundreds of families in what Palestinian authorities described as collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint. The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction, and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the Ein Deir Baha district. The entire city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints.
The large-scale demolitions followed an attack on Friday on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron by two gunmen, which resulted in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers and three injuries, as well as the deaths of the two gunmen. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the site and promised a swift and ferocious response. Smotrich ordered the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site, alleging Ein Deir Baha was the home district of the gunmen.