373 Families Forced From Hebron Homes, Deputy Mayor Says

Israeli forces have forced 2,231 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron since the weekend, the city's deputy mayor said, as a military operation displaces hundreds of families. ^[1]

Deputy Mayor Khaled Fahd al-Qawasmi told Haaretz on October 25 that 373 families had been removed and about 30 more faced removal. His account gives the latest measure of civilian displacement during the operation in the occupied West Bank city. ^[1]

The operation followed a shooting near Hebron on October 23 that killed two Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military said it was searching for militants and weapons in the area where the attackers had operated, and expected the operation to last several days. ^[3]

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the forced removals violate international law, according to Haaretz. Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin separately accused Israel of collectively punishing civilians who had no connection to the shooting. ^[1][3]

Israel's military described its searches as precise and targeted. Defence Minister Israel Katz acknowledged that about 2,000 people had been displaced and said residents would not be allowed back to their neighbourhood until Israel had finished dealing with what he called the Hamas issues in Hebron, according to Al Jazeera. ^[2][3]

Neither statement gave residents a date to go home. The military offered an estimate of how long its searches would take, while Katz made return conditional on the achievement of security aims. ^[2][3]

Deputy mayor puts removals at 373 families

Al-Qawasmi's figure follows estimates published on October 24, when Hebron's mayor put the number displaced at 2,200 and Katz acknowledged about 2,000. ^[2]

Those figures differ in precision, but both Palestinian municipal officials and Israel's defence minister describe displacement on the scale of thousands. The dispute is therefore about the full extent and justification of the removals, rather than whether a substantial civilian population has had to leave. ^[1][2]

Katz's acknowledgement gives the scale a basis beyond the accounts of Palestinian officials. It does not verify al-Qawasmi's exact total, but it puts an Israeli government figure alongside the municipal estimates. All three figures describe more than 2,000 people, or approximately that number, displaced during the operation. ^[1][2]

No independent count has established the total displaced or the full area affected. The officials' estimates are not a continuous count, so the difference between 2,200 and 2,231 cannot show how many additional people left.

Where each family has gone, what shelter and basic supplies they have, and how many of the roughly 30 families facing removal have subsequently been forced out are also not known. Haaretz did not give the association's detailed legal reasoning or a specific Israeli response to it. ^[1][2][3]

The family count makes the scale more tangible. Al-Qawasmi described 373 separate families leaving their homes, with another group still facing removal. For local authorities, that means arranging assistance for hundreds of family units while the operation continues. ^[1][3]

The roughly 30 families he said were threatened with removal would add about eight families for every 100 already displaced if all were forced out. That is a measure of the further displacement he described as possible, not a count of additional removals that have happened. ^[1]

Dudin told AFP that local authorities were working to provide assistance and temporary accommodation. That effort is taking place alongside restrictions on movement: residents were directed through designated exit points for security checks, vehicle access to Hebron was restricted, and people crossed checkpoints on foot, according to Euronews. ^[3]

A security operation with a civilian cost

The immediate sequence began with the October 23 shooting. Two Palestinian gunmen were killed during the exchange of fire in which the two Israeli soldiers died, according to Euronews. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then announced a large-scale military response. ^[3]

The military said its operation focused on the area from which the attackers had operated, with searches intended to locate militants and weapons. That is the army's stated security rationale for the action now under way. ^[3]

Dudin gave a different account of its effect, saying civilians unconnected to the shooting were being subjected to collective punishment. The Palestinian Authority also called for international pressure to protect Hebron residents and described the closures, demolitions and displacement as collective punishment, according to Al Jazeera. ^[2][3]

The legal objection concerns the lawfulness of forcing residents out, while the military's explanation concerns the purpose of its searches. A security objective alone does not answer the objections being raised about how civilians are treated.

For the families already displaced, the practical question is whether they can return as the searches proceed or must wait for the operation's wider objectives to be met. Katz's statement places that decision with Israel and makes it conditional on its assessment of the security situation. ^[2]