Days before Israeli election, military conducts massive West Bank operation

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military carried out a massive military operation in the occupied West Bank over the weekend, displacing hundreds of Palestinians and placing major restrictions on Palestinian movement, in response to a gun attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron on Friday.

The operation comes as Israel enters the final days before a tense election, which is largely seen as a referendum on current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership and security policies during the past three years of war.

Most Palestinian workers with permits will not be allowed to enter Israeli communities for work in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and Monday, and crossings into Israel will remain closed until after Israel’s elections on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.

The military said it operated in more than 400 different locations over the weekend and arrested 40 Palestinians it claimed were affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The operation displaced hundreds of families, forcing some to navigate crossings on foot after the roads were closed to traffic. At some military gates, people passed sacks of flour and gas canisters through the gates, while an elderly man pushed his wife in a wheelchair through an opening beside one of them. Another family attempted to navigate the gate to access medical appointments.

After Friday’s attack, Israel’s military said it found weapons in the gunmen’s car and that they were likely planning to attack Israeli civilians before being stopped at the checkpoint.

The military said that troops were “conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches” in the area where the gunmen operated, and warned residents to evacuate Deir Bahha, the suspected gunmen’s neighborhood.

Hebron municipal officials said between 200 and 300 families had been displaced from Deir Bahha and four surrounding neighborhoods overnight, most going to other parts of the city.

Six Israelis have been killed this year in attacks in the West Bank, which is experiencing a surge of violence. During the same period, 112 Palestinians have been killed, including the suspected gunmen, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

The attack sparked outrage in Israel, with Netanyahu and three members of his right-wing government giving statements from the site of the attack on Friday afternoon, vowing to respond forcefully. “We warned a few weeks ago about attempts by our enemies to harm us, our citizens and our soldiers ahead of the election,” Netanyahu said. “We will act to destroy this place.”

Netanyahu is under pressure to demonstrate a strong show of force against Palestinian attackers to bolster his image for Israelis concerned with security.

Roughly 3 million Palestinians and 540,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Hebron is one of its most tense cities and the only place where Jewish settlers live in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian area under Israeli military protection.

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Metz reported from Hebron, West Bank.