On Tuesday, the Israeli army continued its military operation in the Hebron governorate in the southern occupied West Bank for the fifth consecutive day, amid raids on the city's neighborhoods and the deployment of military reinforcements, after displacing 4,969 Palestinians from their homes.
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On Friday, the Israeli army began the operation following an attack by two Palestinians that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others, before the army later killed the attackers.
Since Friday, the Israeli army has imposed a closure on the city of Hebron and surrounding villages, following the attack.
The Hebron municipality said in a statement that “the total number of displaced families since the start of the Israeli military operation has reached 780 families, comprising 4,969 people.”
She added that among the displaced were “336 infants, 441 elderly people, 216 pregnant and lactating women, in addition to 44 people with disabilities, and 312 people with chronic diseases.”
The Hebron Relief and Support Committee said in a statement Monday evening that the number of displaced people in the city had risen to 3,971 Palestinians, comprising 619 families, as a result of the ongoing military operation.
Local sources reported that additional Israeli army forces, accompanied by military vehicles, stormed several neighborhoods in Hebron at midnight, raiding and searching Palestinian homes.
The sources said that army forces continue to close off the Al-Jalda and Ain Deir Baha areas in Hebron, after forcing families to evacuate large parts of them.
She added that the army is preventing Palestinians from crossing the closed gates at the entrances to the city, its towns and camps, noting that the closures are concentrated at the entrances to the city of Hebron and the towns of Idhna, Bani Na’im and Halhul and the Al-Fawwar and Al-Arroub camps.
Eyewitnesses said that new military reinforcements also arrived in the Ain Deir Baha area, where forces are stationed in a number of Palestinian buildings that they have turned into military barracks.
During the first two days of the military operation, Hebron witnessed widespread forced displacement of hundreds of Palestinians, along with the demolition of homes, facilities and shops, the destruction of infrastructure in the city, and the conversion of some homes into military barracks and the raising of Israeli flags on them.
The Israeli army arrested 85 Palestinians in the Hebron governorate between Friday and Monday, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
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