Demolitions and Ballots in Hebron

Election season has a way of turning military tactics into high-stakes political performance. Facing an upcoming vote on Tuesday that threatens to strip his far-right coalition of its parliamentary majority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost no time transforming a fatal security incident near Hebron into a public demonstration of overwhelming force.

The immediate trigger was a twenty-minute gunfight outside a temporary checkpoint. Two men in a car with Israeli license plates, armed with an automatic rifle and a handgun, opened fire on troops, killing two soldiers and wounding three others before being killed. Within hours of the incident, political leaders were on the scene, competing to demonstrate who could react with greater severity.

Netanyahu promptly announced a siege on Hebron—a city of roughly 250,000 Palestinians—and nearby Halhul. He outlined plans for mass home demolitions, forced evacuations of entire clan neighborhoods, and the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich staged his own campaign appearance at the site, posting a video of a bulldozer razing a nearby Palestinian home built without permits, explicitly framing the action as a necessary measure to exact a price despite no proven link to the gunmen.

Defense Minister Israel Katz framed the punitive measures around recent tactics used elsewhere in the region, declaring: “The Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron. Every clan neighbourhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged today will be evacuated of its residents.”

Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir used his visit to demand the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and tighter movement restrictions across the territory. The political rush to show muscle encountered immediate resistance from Israel's High Court, which issued a temporary order halting the initial demolitions after legal petitions pointed out that punishing entire communities violates established administrative and international standards.

Whether court orders will stem the political momentum remains questionable. For a coalition fighting for survival, legal pushback is a secondary concern compared to the imperative of projecting decisive force. In the West Bank, where over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 and tensions surround the ongoing olive harvest, security management and electioneering have become entirely indistinguishable.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com