More than 3,000 people have been displaced by an Israeli military operation in Hebron after a deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen last week, the city’s authorities said yesterday.
The municipality in Hebron, the occupied West Bank’s biggest city, said in a statement that 3,189 people, including more than 200 infants, had been displaced by the ongoing operation that began on Saturday.
It follows Friday’s attack when two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers at a checkpoint near the city, days before today’s Israeli elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged a major operation in the West Bank immediately after the attack, which ended when the gunmen were killed in a shootout.
Israeli troops entered the neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha, where the two assailants lived, and ordered residents to pack up and leave. A convoy of Israeli military and police vehicles accompanied by soldiers was seen in Hebron on Sunday, making its way down a street blocked to civilian traffic by parked cars and motorbikes, images showed.
Netanyahu boasted of his endorsement from Donald Trump on the eve of Israel’s election, suggesting the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after Trump said they should ‘finish the job.’
“US President Donald Trump has come with a friendship that has never existed before between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. And it is doubtful we will ever have such a friendly president again,” Netanyahu said in a televised appearance late on Sunday night. “He has another two years, and he says he is calling on you to vote for me.”
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