About 1,200 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes in Hebron, in the occupied West Coast, after an Israeli Army operation a day after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shooting attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Friday of launching a large-scale operation, as two Palestinian armed men opened fire at a military checkpoint near the city. According to the Israeli army, the two attackers were killed by its forces.
The military said the operation in Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baja neighbourhoods was aimed at searching for armed men and weapons, while warning of the collapse of buildings.
The head of the Hebron municipality, Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, said that about 1,300 people are at risk of losing their homes, except for those already displaced. He announced that stores, factories, homes and roads have collapsed during the operation.
The Palestinian authority has named the operation collective punishment, while Al-Jabari described the Israeli response as unproportional and unwarranted.
According to the nongovernmental organisation Palestine PrisonsCub, Israeli forces have arrested about 70 Palestinians during Friday and Saturday. Israeli officials have not commented on reports of the arrests.
Residents told Reuters that many of the persons expelled from the homes had no connection with Palestinian attackers. They also reported seeing Israelite soldiers marking with a black cross the houses from which the inhabitants had fled, but the purpose of these signs has not become clear.
Meanwhile, restrictions imposed by Israel on the entrances of most Palestinian cities and towns in the West Coast have significantly limited the movement of residents. Some say that they are unable to travel to Jerusalem to receive medical treatment.
A resident from Palestinian town of Yatta, Yousef Moore, said that he had not been able to send his daughter, who suffers from cancer, to Jerusalem for treatment because of the blockades and interventions of Israeli forces.
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Source Layer: Signal