Israeli forces have seized Palestinian homes in Hebron's Khallat Manna and Dahiyat al-Zaytoun neighbourhoods, converting them into barracks and observation posts after evicting residents. The operation, launched after two armed Palestinians allegedly attacked an Israeli reserve base on Friday killing two soldiers, has imposed a full lockdown on the city and triggered hundreds of raids across its southern reaches. The scale of displacement is stark. The Palestinian Prisoner's Society reports 293 families — approximately 2,200 people — forcibly displaced since Friday, with 47 Palestinians detained. Among those displaced: 127 infants, 81 pregnant women, 26 people with disabilities, 134 people with chronic illnesses, and 265 elderly over 60. Israeli troops also conducted mass field interrogations described by the group as involving detention and abuse. Simultaneously, Israeli settlers began establishing two new outposts on Palestinian-owned land near Yatta, south of Hebron. In Khallet al-Fara, settlers pitched tents, brought bulldozers, and started levelling land for construction. In the Yatta desert between az-Zuweidin and Umm Qussa, another outpost appeared with tents and water and electricity infrastructure being installed on Palestinian-owned land. The military-settler coordination follows a familiar pattern: a security incident triggers collective punishment, which provides cover for permanent territorial expansion. The army locks down roads and neighbourhoods; settlers move in with construction machinery. Near Bethlehem, roads and entrances across the governorate were closed for a third consecutive day. In Tuqu, Israeli forces blocked dirt roads and fired tear gas at Palestinian vehicles attempting alternative routes. The timing is not incidental. Israel's general elections are days away, and the operation aligns with an ongoing wave of settler violence targeting olive harvesters across the occupied Palestinian territory. The political incentive structure rewards escalation: military operations in the West Bank signal security credentials to the electorate while physically expanding settlement infrastructure. What distinguishes this operation from routine raids is the explicit conversion of civilian housing stock into military infrastructure. Homes become barracks. Residential streets become checkpoints. Private property becomes state apparatus. This is not temporary security — it is the mechanics of permanent displacement dressed in the language of counter-terrorism. The 2,200 displaced have no timeline for return, no compensation mechanism, and no legal recourse within the military court system that governs their lives. The two new outposts, once built, will not be dismantled. Each operation ratchets territory further from Palestinian control, with the security justification providing legal and political cover for what is, structurally, territorial acquisition by force.
