Tension between Israelis and Palestinians has skyrocketed this Friday in one of the most violent and complicated areas of the West Bank, the city of Hebron. Early in the morning, two Palestinians opened fire at an intersection near the town and wounded five Israelis, two of whom are in serious condition. The shooting lasted several minutes before the army killed the two attackers.
The attack comes in the final stretch of the campaign for Tuesday's Israeli elections, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to impose a total and indefinite closure throughout the West Bank starting this Friday. “It appears that Hamas terrorists were planning a large-scale attack aimed at killing Israeli civilians, given the amount of weapons and ammunition discovered,” the head of government warned in a statement.
According to the Israeli army, soldiers went to a crossing near Hebron, in the southern West Bank, after receiving reports of shots fired and injuries. Several witnesses told local press that the shooting lasted at least 20 minutes. “Two terrorists were eliminated and search tasks continue in the area,” the army detailed.
The closure of the West Bank decreed by Netanyahu means that Palestinians will see their movements limited as much as possible, they will not be able to move from one city to another and Israeli controls and raids within localities will increase.
The local press has identified the two Palestinian attackers as Firas and Hamouda al Jaaba, natives of Hebron, where their homes have already been searched – like other houses in the town – in search of suspects and information about the attack.
"The city is completely closed. No one can leave Hebron, but most people cannot move from their homes either. The soldiers are searching many homes," says Issa Amro, a well-known activist and pacifist in the town, in statements to EL PAÍS.
Hebron has been the scene of violence for decades between Palestinians, the Israeli army and the inhabitants of the abundant settlements in the area. Amro recalls that in the historic center of the city there are already more than 30 Israeli military checkpoints on normal days, and that the freedom of movement of the inhabitants is always very restricted: "The situation is always bad and now it is expected to be worse, because we fear that the settlers will carry out some act of retaliation after what happened."
Organizations that bring together the inhabitants of the Israeli settlements in the southern West Bank have already called for a prayer for this Friday afternoon at the site of the shooting, before the start of the Sabbath, the day of rest for Jews.
The Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas has described this Friday's attack as a "heroic" act, and has urged citizens to mobilize and continue their attacks against "the occupiers, their soldiers and their criminal settlers, who continue to commit the most atrocious crimes against our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip."
The proximity of the elections already had military personnel on alert. On Thursday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the responsibility for any attacks in the days before the elections would fall on opposition leaders, as they were dismissing Netanyahu's warnings and accusing him of stoking these alleged risks, for political purposes and in the hope of influencing the voters' decision.
The reactions of members of the Israeli Government to this attack were immediate, starting with those of the two most radical ministers of the far-right government coalition: Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, and Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security.
“This attack shows again what I have been saying for four years in the government: we have to dismantle this thing called the Palestinian Authority,” said Ben Gvir, convicted of crimes such as inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization and investigated since June in Italy for allegations of mistreatment of Gaza flotilla activists.
"We have to put an end to roads shared by Jews and Palestinian residents. Their freedom of movement matters less than our right to life," added the minister, who lives in Kiriat Arba, the first settlement established near Hebron, just months after the 1967 Six-Day War, which marked the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Smotrich, for his part, ordered the immediate demolition of several structures built by Palestinians near the scene of the shooting and which, according to the person responsible, did not have official authorization.
His statements cannot be dissociated from the final sprint of the electoral campaign in Israel in which the most recent polls show a tie between the bloc that currently runs the country (Netanyahu's Likud party, plus the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalists) and the parties that oppose the prime minister.
