Why is Israel launching a new military operation in the occupied West Bank?

Israel's military has launched a major new operation in the occupied West Bank, which it describes as a counterterrorism campaign expected to last several days, Al Jazeera reported on October 24, 2026.

The operation follows an attack at an Israeli military checkpoint near Hebron on Friday in which two Israeli soldiers were killed. Al Jazeera reports that the two suspected Palestinian gunmen were shot dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered a full lockdown of the West Bank, said Israeli forces would go house-to-house in the Hebron neighbourhood the suspected attackers came from. "We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely," he said, according to Al Jazeera. Netanyahu said the operation would involve demolitions and forced displacement, as well as extensive waves of arrests.

By Saturday morning, Israeli forces had raided at least 15 towns in the northern West Bank, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya, arresting dozens of Palestinians, Al Jazeera correspondents reported. In Hebron, a three-storey building was wrecked by bulldozers, and hundreds of families were ordered to leave their homes in the Ein Deir Bahha area and its surroundings.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said Hebron was sealed off, with seven district entrances closed. The Hebron municipality told Al Jazeera that up to half of the neighbourhood attacked overnight had been forcibly displaced, with at least 200 families now outside their homes.

The operation has drawn sharp criticism. Israeli rights group B'Tselem warned that the planned offensive amounts to collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes. The United Nations also expressed concern about closures restricting Palestinians' access to basic services and livelihoods, while Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti described the lockdown as turning every city and village into "a small prison".