A city sealed after two soldiers are killed
Israel brought in broad closures across Hebron on Saturday and pushed residents out of their homes in the West Bank city, following an assault by Palestinian gunmen that Israel said left two of its soldiers dead. Cars could not pass through any of the gates into or out of the city, according to Basma Radio, a crowdsourced Telegram channel that Palestinians rely on to track checkpoints and blocked roads. Taxis backed up at Israeli military gates outside Hebron while Palestinians who needed to get through crossed on foot.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7]
The Palestinian news outlet WAFA reported Saturday that Israeli troops made dozens of residents leave their homes in several Hebron neighborhoods and shut every entrance and road into the city. Israel's army did not answer questions about the evacuations that day. A day earlier, the military said its forces had started carrying out what it described as precise, targeted and thorough searches in the Hebron area where the two gunmen had operated, after the attack that killed two soldiers and wounded others.[S1]
Travel, school and medical care cut off
Closures of this kind have become more and more frequent in the West Bank, especially in and around Hebron. They have made it harder for Palestinians to reach jobs, get to classes and move from one village to another.[S1]
On Saturday morning, Reem Al Jiyawi stood at a closed gate trying to bring her 11-year-old daughter to a hospital in Dura for an appointment with a cancer doctor. Because she could not drive straight from her village west of Hebron, the girl was left at the gate to walk across and pick up a shared taxi on the far side.[S1]
