Netanyahu and Katz order evacuation of Hebron neighborhood linked to gunmen

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz went to the place near Hebron, in the southern West Bank, where gunmen had opened fire, and said they had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to enter the neighborhood the attackers came from, remove its residents and destroy militant infrastructure there. According to a statement from Netanyahu carried by commentator Amit Segal, the prime minister said troops would go house by house and that Israel was ready for a broad operation in the West Bank.

The attack itself took place earlier on October 23, 2026. The Jerusalem Post reported that five people were hurt, two of them seriously, and that Israeli forces killed two Palestinian assailants. N12 described the scene as Judea Junction, while The Times of Israel referred to it as a checkpoint attack.

What Netanyahu and Katz announced

Netanyahu framed the plan as an extension of tactics already used elsewhere. In the statement reported by Segal and by News.co.il, he said Israel would apply what he called the offensive and successful model used in refugee camps, this time inside cities: the army would enter the neighborhoods from which the attackers set out, evacuate the people living there, search homes one by one and demolish what he termed terror infrastructure. He added: "We are prepared for broad action in Judea and Samaria."

Katz, in a statement posted by the Abu Ali Express channel, said he and the prime minister had directed the IDF to thwart all militant infrastructure in the area of the attack and to act with unprecedented force in the Hebron neighborhood the gunmen came from, following the model of the Jenin refugee camp. He said the neighborhood would be emptied of its residents and all terror infrastructure in it destroyed, and warned that the attackers, those who sent them and those who sheltered or helped them would pay a very heavy price. News.co.il reported that Katz also said the attack had been intended to cause mass civilian casualties.

Abu Ali Express separately reported Netanyahu as saying the approach used in the refugee camps of northern Samaria would be copied to the Hebron neighborhood, and that a wide military operation in the West Bank to root out terrorism would begin soon.

Political pressure for a larger operation

The visit came as members of the government pressed for escalation. The Jerusalem Post reported that ministers were calling for a major military push in the West Bank, and that Netanyahu pledged to hunt down the Hamas members responsible. The Post's report attributed the attack to Hamas; the other reports in our material do not name an organisation.

Key terms and places

Hebron is a large Palestinian city in the southern West Bank and has long been a focal point of friction between Israelis and Palestinians.

Judea and Samaria, often abbreviated in Hebrew as Yosh, is the term the Israeli government and many Israelis use for the West Bank. Northern Samaria refers to the northern West Bank, where Jenin and its refugee camp are located.

The Jenin model refers to Israeli military operations in refugee camps in the northern West Bank. Both Netanyahu and Katz cited that campaign as the template for Hebron. What differs, by Netanyahu's own description, is that the approach would now be applied to neighborhoods inside cities rather than to camps.

Differences between the accounts

The reports diverge on scope. Netanyahu spoke of neighborhoods in the plural, while Katz referred to a single neighborhood in Hebron. The Times of Israel headline quoted Netanyahu as saying the neighborhood would be "destroyed", whereas Katz's statement, as carried by Hebrew outlets, spoke of evacuating residents and destroying terror infrastructure within the neighborhood, without saying the neighborhood as a whole would be razed. The location is also described differently: a checkpoint in one report, Judea Junction in another, and simply near Hebron in a third.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports name the Hebron neighborhood concerned or say how many people live there. They do not give a timetable for the evacuation, explain where residents would go, or say whether demolitions would be limited to specific buildings. The identities of the two gunmen and of the wounded have not been reported in this material, nor has the condition of the wounded beyond the Jerusalem Post's figures. There is no response included from Palestinian officials or residents, and no detail on what the wider West Bank operation Netanyahu referred to would involve or when it would start.