HEBRON: Just days before Israel’s elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered a lockdown in the occupied West Bank following an attack in which two Palestinians allegedly wounded five people before being killed in a shootout with Israeli forces.

Netanyahu, facing a tight race for a new term in Tuesday’s vote, alleged that Israeli troops prevented what could have been a major attack, with the two assailants allegedly carrying a large quantity of ‘ammunition’.

Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the attack as a “heroic operation” and called for more.

Two Palestinians accused of attacking, injuring five Israelis killed

A Hebron-based AFP photographer who was en route to another assignment witnessed the gun battle break out at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint near the Palestinian city, and saw two Palestinian men allegedly armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces.

Israeli forces eventually shot and killed the ‘attackers’, with the AFP journalist seeing their lifeless bodies on the ground next to a petrol station as troops patrolled all around.

The Israeli military claimed soldiers had rushed to the Judea Junction area after the early-morning shooting and “eliminated two terrorists”.

The attack wounded five Israelis, two of whom were in critical condition, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical rescue service.

With the clock counting down to election day, Netanyahu called for all Likud party political meetings to be cancelled Friday due to the attack.

“I salute the courage of our soldiers who acted with determination and prevented what could have been a major attack,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“I have instructed the IDF (army) and security forces to impose an immediate cordon on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full lockdown of all of Judea and Samaria starting today,” Netanyahu said, using the biblical name for occupied West Bank.

He added that troops were “carrying out stepped-up operations to thwart terrorist activities and are conducting large-scale waves of arrests”.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a fresh military offensive “exactly like in Gaza” in the West Bank. “There is no other option but a comprehensive military campaign in Judea and Samaria to dismantle the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026