Netanyahu Vows Operation 'Not Seen Since the Six Day War' After Checkpoint Firefight

The Israeli military is tearing down Palestinian homes near Hebron after a firefight at a checkpoint killed two soldiers and wounded three others. Bulldozers started flattening structures on Friday afternoon close to the site of the shooting, forcing hundreds of Palestinians from a neighborhood in the occupied West Bank city.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed cameras from the location of the attack to announce a coming military operation "on a scale not seen since the Six Day War," the 1967 conflict after which Israel first occupied the territory. "We will act to demolish this place, to change it completely," he said. Netanyahu compared the planned action to an Israeli assault on two refugee camps in the northern West Bank last year that displaced tens of thousands. Human Rights Watch characterized those expulsions as war crimes, a charge Israel rejects.

The military told NPR that two gunmen opened fire on soldiers sheltering behind concrete barriers at the checkpoint. The exchange lasted about 20 minutes before troops killed the attackers. The incident occurs amid a rise in settler violence and land seizures against Palestinians, and Israel has imposed closures across Hebron, the largest city in the occupied West Bank, restricting movement. The territory contains some 925 checkpoints, roadblocks, earth mounds and other barriers.

Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, linked the operation's scale to Israel's October 27 national elections. "For Netanyahu, his ticket before the election is, 'I'm Mr. Security,'" Citrinowicz said, adding that Netanyahu would "take harsh measures in order to show the Israeli public that he supports them." Polls show Netanyahu running neck and neck with rival Gadi Eisenkot, with neither holding enough support to form a government.

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, called on foreign governments to intervene to avert "another wave of ethnic cleansing and war crimes." Citrinowicz described the eviction of families from the attackers' neighborhood, absent evidence linking them to the gunmen, as "collective punishment."

Israel's national election is scheduled for October 27. Citrinowicz said the removal of residents without proof of any connection to the attackers constitutes punishment of the broader population.