Israel orders West Bank lockdown after Hebron shooting attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a “full lockdown” of the occupied West Bank on Friday after Israel’s military said it killed two Palestinians accused of launching an attack that injured five people near the city of Hebron.

The deadly incident comes just days before a crucial election that will decide whether Netanyahu can hold on to power.

There has been a recent surge in Israeli settler violence and military activity in the West Bank centered on the start of the olive harvesting season, with Palestinians, activists and American journalists among those attacked and detained.

Netanyahu’s office said said it instructed the Israel Defense Forces to “impose a closure” on Hebron and to prepare for a “full lockdown” across the entire West Bank starting Friday.

The order came hours after the Israeli military said it had killed two people after a shooting attack in which at least five people were reported injured. It said it was continuing to search the area.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s primary emergency service, said it received a report at around 7.15 a.m. local time (12.15 a.m. ET) of multiple casualties following the attack near the Yehuda Junction, near Hebron. It said first responders had provided medical treatment to at least five people, including two in critical condition.

The identities of the two people alleged to have launched the attack and who were killed by Israeli forces was not immediately clear as of late Friday morning.

The lockdown comes ahead of next week’s Israeli election, which is largely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership around the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Netanyahu has focused much of campaign in the lead-up to next Tuesday’s vote on security for Israelis. His government has repeatedly warned of potential attacks by the country’s “enemies” in the lead-up to the election, without providing evidence.

The West Bank has been a growing flashpoint for months, and the past week has seen another wave of settler violence and military activity in the territory as the Palestinian olive harvesting season has gotten underway.

American nationals are among those who have come under attack while accompanying Palestinian farmers on their harvests. Earlier this week New York congressional candidate Brad Lander was detained in the area alongside a number of activists and American rabbis.

Settler violence has long flared during the olive harvesting season, but in the years since the Oct. 7 attacks, violence has increased sharply, with Palestinians also seeing their olives stolen.

According to the United Nations, at least 160 Israeli settler attacks linked to the olive harvesting season were recorded in the first two weeks of October alone. The U.N. said many of those attacks were carried out “under the protection of, or with the participation of, Israeli forces.”

Netanyahu’s government has backed settler expansion in the West Bank despite international condemnation.