Two Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank carried out an attack this morning near the Hebron gate. Two IDF soldiers were killed and several more were injured. The gunmen were both killed in the shootout.
Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military checkpoint near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, killing two soldiers and wounding three in a gunfight that lasted for more than 20 minutes, before soldiers killed both attackers...
The two attackers arrived by car at around 7:30 a.m. at a temporary checkpoint set up by the army at the exit to Hebron.
The soldiers stationed there, from the Home Front Command’s 775th “Ari” Search and Rescue Battalion, were conducting routine checks on Palestinian cars leaving the city.
The two Palestinians exited their car on a side street, armed with an assault rifle and a pistol. Using the buildings as cover, they opened fire on the checkpoint, according to the preliminary probe.
The IDF believes the attackers were planning a larger, more deadly attack on a nearby highway but once they were stopped at the checkpoint they realized they wouldn't be able to get there and attacked the soldiers at the checkpoint instead.
The attack was caught on video.
תיעוד פיגוע הירי בצומת יהודה: @HGoldich https://t.co/6scAiEzc7S
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 23, 2026
Naturally, there are "Palestinian journalists" and mouthpieces out there claiming this is Israel's fault.
🚨: Two Palestinians fell in battle after defending themselves against an Israeli force at a checkpoint in Hebron wounding at least five soldiers in a 20-minute active shooting this morning, report Palestinian sources and The Haaretz. Two are critically wounded who Palestinian source Quds News say succumbed to their wounds. In response, the Israeli army has imposed a near-total lockdown on Hebron and fired tear gas to disperse the civilians in markets maiming several of them. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have praised the resistance operation and described it as a “heroic act”. Israel continues to build illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and setting up innumerable roadblocks and checkpoints to impede access and movement within Palestinian towns and communities. https://t.co/iBwp0rWzN0
— Abubaker Abed (@AbubakerAbedW) October 23, 2026
As we saw in Gaza, it doesn't matter who started it to the Hamas supporters. They will claim Palestinians are being unfairly attacked no matter what.
Israel has ordered a full lockdown of the West Bank and Netanyahu is promising a major operation in response to today's attack.
Mr. Netanyahu visited the site of the attacks and said Israel would carry out a major operation in a neighborhood of Hebron, where he said the attackers had come from. “We will evacuate the residents; we will go home by home and remove weapons,” he said. “All of the weapons infrastructure will be dealt with and demolished.”
“We are going to implement the successful and aggressive model that we employed in the refugee camps,” Mr. Netanyahu said, referring to the Israeli military’s offensives in Jenin and Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank. Since early 2025, the military has conducted a massive crackdown there, displacing tens of thousands of people, demolishing homes and tearing up roads...
Soldiers and police officers have launched “offensive counterterrorism operations in the Hebron area,” the military said, adding that soldiers were operating in the homes of the assailants and other suspects. Mr. Netanyahu ordered the security forces to cordon off Hebron, and to prepare for a “lockdown” of the territory starting on Friday. He added that security forces were conducting extensive arrests.
Some homes in the vicinity of the attack have already been demolished.
Israeli occupation forces begin a large-scale demolition operation near the site of a shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured others in the Farsh al-Hawa area of Hebron. https://t.co/H5DEHvMKbr
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) October 23, 2026
Judea: The Response Special 🇮🇱 Following a directive from Minister Smotrich, the immediate demolition of illegal structures has begun near the site of this morning’s terror attack in Hebron. Heavy machinery is already in operation, following the swift evacuation of the Palestinian population from the area. The price just went up. 🚜🔥
— Mossad Customer Support (@LionOfJudahX) October 23, 2026
Naturally, this isn't the beginning of this story. Palestinians and Jews have been attacking one another in the West Bank for years and there has been an uptick recently.
The shooting took place amid a broader rise in violence in the West Bank since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed.
Palestinian gunmen have shot and stabbed Israel civilians and soldiers. Last month, an Israeli man was shot and killed in the central West Bank, according to Israeli authorities, who said they had detained a Palestinian suspect over the attack.
Extremist Jewish settlers have carried out attacks on Palestinians, setting mosques and homes ablaze, stealing livestock and cutting down olive trees. That aggression has forced entire Palestinian communities to flee.
In any case, the attack this morning is going to be seen by many Israelis as a justification for cracking down on terrorists in the area where this happened and as an unjustified response by Iran, Hamas, Palestinians and Americans who wave Palestinian flags at protests. So expect a lot more anger over the response than over the attack which killed to IDF soldiers this morning.
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