Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in Shooting at Judea Junction in the West Bank

Update: Around 1,200 Palestinians displaced in Hebron operation, Reuters reports

Updated 16:45 UTC, Oct. 24, 2026. The Israeli military forced around 1,200 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Saturday, Reuters reported in a story first published at 12:22 UTC and updated at 16:30 UTC. The operation in the Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods near the military checkpoint at the entrance of Hebron is to search for militants and weapons, the Israeli military said, and it also said the military would carry out demolitions. The Palestinian Authority criticised the operation as a collective punishment.

Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, the head of Hebron's municipality, said around 1,300 more people faced losing their homes in addition to the 1,200 already displaced, and that the military had demolished shops, factories, homes and roads in Hebron. "Netanyahu and the radical ministers in his government are trying to win as many votes as possible from the settlers," Al-Jabari said, referring to Israel's parliamentary elections on Tuesday. The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said Israeli forces had arrested around 70 Palestinians on Friday and Saturday, and Israeli officials have not commented on any arrests, Reuters reported. Residents told Reuters they saw soldiers marking homes with a black X after their occupants had been forced to leave, and it was not immediately clear what the mark meant. Across the West Bank, Israel has blocked the entrances to most Palestinian cities and towns, Reuters reported.

Updated 05:20 UTC, Oct 24, 2026. Israeli forces pressed on with a multi-day operation in the Hebron area on Saturday, keeping a cordon around the area the two gunmen came from while troops conducted precise, targeted and thorough searches to locate weapons and militant infrastructure and questioned suspects, the Israeli military and the Israeli Security Agency said in a joint statement reported by CNN. Residents in the area of the operation can leave only through three designated exit points, after questioning and security screening, and anyone who raises suspicion is referred to security forces for further questioning, the statement said. The forces said they were also mapping the gunmen's residences, keeping roadblocks in place across the sector and demolishing structures they said could pose a security threat. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem condemned the plan to clear the Hebron neighbourhood, and its executive director Yuli Novak said Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz had declared their intention to empty a Palestinian neighbourhood and repeat the mass displacement and destruction inflicted on the northern West Bank refugee camps in early 2025, CNN reported. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the large quantity of ammunition found in the gunmen's vehicle was intended for an attack on a much larger scale, and that the soldiers who responded prevented a more serious attack, CNN reported.

Updated 16:10 UTC, Oct 23, 2026. Israeli forces began demolishing buildings in the Farsh al-Hawa area of Hebron on Friday afternoon and forced residents of a housing complex to leave, CNN reported. In video obtained by CNN, a soldier tells residents: "You have five minutes to evacuate." A Reuters reporter documented Israeli bulldozers demolishing homes near the site of the morning shooting, and local residents said the homes have no connection to the attackers, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to scale back his earlier plan for a full closure of the West Bank, saying he would consider a cordon around Hebron and Halhul that may extend to other areas, CNN reported. The demolitions follow the shooting at Judea Junction in which two soldiers were killed and three more were lightly wounded, according to the Israeli military.

Updated 13:07 UTC, Oct 23, 2026. The Israeli army said two of its soldiers were killed in the Friday shooting at Yehuda Junction, also called Judea Junction, outside Hebron. It named them as Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem and said three other soldiers were lightly wounded, AP reported. That revises the earlier count of five wounded, two of them critically. Both gunmen, Palestinians from Hebron armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun, were killed after an exchange of fire that lasted about 20 minutes, according to the army and CNN reporting.

Two soldiers killed, dozens arrested

The army said the gunmen arrived at a military position in the morning and that troops stopped them from advancing toward civilians. Netanyahu held an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet with senior military and security officials and blamed Hamas for the attack, AP reported. He said the soldiers had thwarted the attack and wished the wounded a speedy recovery. After the shooting, soldiers and security agencies carried out dozens of operations across the West Bank and apprehended dozens of people, including people affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and located weapons including M16 rifles and submachine guns, the army said, according to AP.

CNN reported that Netanyahu later on Friday said the military would evacuate the Hebron neighbourhood the attackers came from, go house to house, remove weapons and destroy what he called terrorist infrastructure, pointing to the plan used in Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Al-Far'a in early 2025. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said at the scene that the attack showed Israel needed to restrict Palestinian movement in the West Bank, AP reported.

Updated 12:04 UTC, Oct 23, 2026. Footage verified by the BBC shows an intense gun battle at the checkpoint at the entrance to Hebron, and a medic recorded by Reuters said the shooting continued for at least 20 minutes, which held up the evacuation of the wounded. Magen David Adom said all five wounded are Israelis in their 20s, including one man in very serious condition with gunshot wounds, AFP reported.

Raids, demolitions and a cancelled campaign day

The military said it had started raids on the homes of the suspected attackers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had ordered the demolition of several Palestinian buildings near the site of the shooting, the BBC reported. The military said a large quantity of ammunition was found in the attackers' vehicle and that it believes the gunmen had planned a much larger attack on Route 35 but ran into the checkpoint and opened fire there.

Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the attack as a heroic operation and called for more, AFP reported. Netanyahu, who has made security the centre of his election campaign, said his Likud party would cancel its campaign events on Friday morning. Israel votes on Oct. 27, in its first general election since the Hamas led attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

Updated 09:17 UTC, Oct 23, 2026. Israel has ordered its army to prepare for a full closure of the West Bank after the shooting at Judea Junction, and emergency responders now put the number of wounded at five, two of them seriously.

West Bank closure ordered

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that after a security assessment with Defence Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Shin Bet director, the national security adviser and the Central Command chief, he instructed the IDF and security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full lockdown across all of Judea and Samaria starting on Friday, AP reported. The New York Post reported that the closure is to run at least until after the Oct. 27 elections.

Netanyahu said the gunmen appeared to have planned a major attack, pointing to the large quantity of weapons and ammunition that was found, and said forces were carrying out extensive waves of arrests. Zamir said a large quantity of ammunition was found in the vehicle the gunmen arrived in, and that they were armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun. Emergency responders said five people were wounded, two of them seriously, settling counts that had moved between four and five in the first hours after the attack.

Two suspected attackers were killed by Israeli troops after a shooting attack at Judea Junction in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Israeli military said. The junction sits on Route 35 near Hebron, in the south of the West Bank. The military said its forces were still searching the area after the attack and had imposed a cordon, Reuters reported.

First responders reported four people wounded. Two were seriously injured and two were lightly hurt, and Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service, said one of the people it was treating was unconscious. Other early reports put the number of wounded at five, including two people in critical condition. The counts moved in the first hours after the attack, as they often do, and no single confirmed toll had been published by officials in the reports available on Friday morning.

Troops pursued the attackers

Word of a shooting at the junction, south of Hebron, reached Israeli forces early on Friday. The military said numerous soldiers were sent to the area, a pursuit was launched and roadblocks were set up. Troops killed the two suspected attackers as they tried to flee the scene, according to the military account of the incident. Reuters, reporting the military statement, said a cordon had been imposed and searches were continuing.

One live report from Israel said a security closure was placed on several nearby villages while the searches went on, and that extra forces were brought into the area. Paramedics treated the wounded at the scene before they were taken away by ambulance. The early reports did not name the two men who were killed, and the military statement carried by Reuters included no claim of responsibility by any group.

A main road in the hills south of Hebron

Judea Junction is a road junction on Route 35, the main road through the hills south of Hebron. Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, and Israeli forces keep a heavy presence on the main roads around it. Junctions and checkpoints on those roads have been the scene of attacks before, and troops at them are a regular target.

The shooting is the latest violent incident in the West Bank, where Israeli forces carry out frequent raids and where attacks on soldiers and settlers, and violence by settlers against Palestinians, have kept tensions high. Friday's attack drew a large and fast military response: a pursuit on the ground, roadblocks on the approaches to the junction, a cordon around the area and searches that were still under way when the first wire reports were filed.

What is known so far rests on the military statement, the ambulance service and live reporting from Israel in the first hours. The number of wounded may be revised as hospitals and officials publish confirmed figures, and the military has not yet given a fuller account of how the attack began.