Israeli forces level the Ein Deir Baha district of Hebron and seal the city of 250,000

24 October 2026

Israeli troops levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, 24 October 2026, driving out families, local Palestinian authorities said. The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares, equal to 86 acres, had been destroyed or marked for destruction and that about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints at every point of entry. The demolitions followed an attack on Friday, 23 October 2026, on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron by two gunmen, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed and three injured after a 20-minute gunfight; the two gunmen were also killed. Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said in an interview with the public broadcaster Kan that about 2,000 people had been displaced. Hebron's Mayor Yousef al-Ja'bari put the figure at 2,200.