Israeli army says it will close West Bank entrances on election day

The Israeli Army reported this Sunday (25) that entrances to the occupied West Bank will be blocked on Tuesday (27), the day of the legislative elections. The announcement comes after Tel Aviv forced around 2,000 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron after an attack killed two Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority, which partially governs the West Bank, called on the international community to pressure Israel to protect the displaced, who reported hearing soldiers announce the evacuation order over megaphones overnight as they gathered what they could before leaving.

Palestinian families were forced to leave their homes in Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, just days before elections that could change Israel's government.

"About 2,000 people were displaced," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in an interview with public broadcaster Kan. "They will not be allowed to return to their neighborhood until we have finished dealing with all Hamas-related issues in Hebron," he added.

The Israeli Army stated that, between Friday (23) and Saturday (24), it carried out operations in 40 areas of the West Bank, where it captured "almost 40 suspects, including terrorists linked to Hamas and Islamic jihadist terrorist organizations, as well as suspects involved in incitement, public disturbance and stone throwing".

This Sunday, the Armed Forces announced on Telegram "the ban on entry and exit for Palestinian workers" in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, "including industrial zones, as well as land crossings on election day".

Hebron is a city divided into two sectors: one controlled by Palestinian authorities and the other where Israeli settlers live.

In the Ein Dir Baha neighborhood, several buildings were marked with a cross to indicate that they had been emptied, AFP journalists found. The streets are deserted, and only Israeli Army vehicles circulate in the region. In a house high on a hill, an Israeli flag flies.

Higazi merchant Shawer al-Tamimi, 70, said he was woken up by soldiers in the early hours of the morning. Like his neighbors, he had two hours to pack some bags, gather documents and find a place to stay. He says the orders come because Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "wants to win" the elections with the "blood of the Palestinians."

Netanyahu, who is betting his political survival on Tuesday's vote, said he was preparing a larger-scale operation, "the likes of which have not been seen since the Six-Day War" in 1967.

His Minister of National Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, also a candidate in the legislative elections, once again called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, although there is no evidence linking it to the attack.

The scenario is one of growing tension in the West Bank, where settlers intensify increasingly violent incursions against Palestinians.

The Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din counted 672 incidents in the last 26 days, half of them during the Palestinian olive harvest, a period traditionally marked by episodes of settler violence.

The most recent polls point to a technical tie between Netanyahu and his main opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, former army chief and centrist candidate, who also opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, but has promised to act against settler violence.

Netanyahu's government has overseen a rapid expansion of settlements in the West Bank. The territory is home to around 500,000 settlers and at least 3 million Palestinians. UN bodies and most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law relating to military occupations. Israel rejects this position, considering the territory as disputed, not occupied.