How Israel choked off Hebron at 10 entrances, as 5,000 forced to flee

In the Farsh al-Hawa area at the city’s western entrance, Israeli forces demolished a three-apartment residential building during the first two days of the operation – October 23 and 24 – targeted a ceramics company alongside car parts shops, and bulldozed approximately 7,000 square metres (75,000 square feet) of land.

Families were also evicted from the al-Jalda and Ein Deir Bahha neighbourhoods about midnight on Friday, October 23, when Israeli forces ordered residents via loudspeakers to leave.

During the first two days of the operation, forces converted several homes into military barracks and raised Israeli flags on them, according to Anadolu.

Raids, arrests and interrogations

Over the first six days of the operation, the Israeli military arrested approximately 110 Palestinians across the governorate, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

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The detainees include seven children, people with special needs, and dozens of former prisoners. Israeli forces also arrested three women, releasing two while keeping the third under interrogation at the al-Mascobiyeh detention centre.

Furthermore, the military continues to hold eight relatives of the two Palestinian gunmen who killed the Israeli soldiers, having transferred them to interrogation centres.

Beyond formal arrests, hundreds of citizens have been subjected to field interrogations during military raids.

The PPS reported that these interrogations, conducted on streets, at checkpoints and inside homes, have been accompanied by severe beatings and abuse.

The military has searched more than 500 sites in the city.

The Israeli army claims to have discovered a 15-metre- (50ft-) deep underground pit containing an electronic device near an attacker’s home, although the property owner has denied this. The owner said the excavation is a sewage cesspit for an area lacking infrastructure, adding that the property belongs to neither of the gunmen and is more than 100 metres (330ft) from their residences.

Economic paralysis

The Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates daily commercial losses at 12 million shekels (about $3.8m) as a result of this siege.

Factory production capacity has plummeted by 40 to 60 percent, according to estimates by Adnan al-Natsheh, vice president of the Chamber.

The governorate houses about 3,500 industrial facilities, in particular plastics and dairy facilities, as well as 70 percent of the gold workshops for the Palestinian market.

The movement of commercial trucks has completely halted. The demolitions in Farsh al-Hawa alone have caused damage of more than two million shekels (about $640,000).

This recent escalation compounds an already heavy toll across the occupied West Bank.

In September alone, the Hebron governorate faced 272 attacks, including 122 perpetrated by Israeli settlers, and 19 demolition operations that levelled 91 structures, making it the most targeted governorate in the West Bank for demolitions.