A gun attack on an Israeli military checkpoint in Hebron on Friday killed two soldiers. Both attackers were killed on the spot. What followed was not a security operation proportional to a resolved threat — it was a political spectacle timed to Israel's Tuesday elections, where Netanyahu's coalition trails narrowly. Within hours of the attack, Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich arrived with cameras. The prime minister warned of military operations on a scale the West Bank has not seen in nearly 60 years. By Sunday morning, the industrial district of Farsh al-Hawa — car workshops, a ceramics plant, other enterprises — had been bulldozed to rubble. A functioning economic zone reduced to nothing. Kilometres away, the residential neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha was systematically emptied overnight. Military loudspeakers ordered families out at midnight. The Hebron municipality counts 370 families — nearly 2,000 people — displaced. The Israeli army claims residents "left voluntarily." Fahed Ahmaro, a mosque imam who evacuated 30 family members in the dark, calls that characterisation a lie. Abdul Halim al-Tamimi, 77, says an intelligence officer threatened Gaza-style displacement if his family refused to leave. By morning, Israeli flags hung from the Tamimi family villa, now an army headquarters. The army's stated justification rests on a claim that the 2,000 displaced residents belong to the Jaba'a clan, allegedly linked to Hamas and the attackers. Local residents say the clan numbers 150 people at most, with no known history of militancy. The Tamimi family — from a completely different clan — finds their home commandeered regardless. The collective-punishment logic requires no individual evidence; geographic proximity to the attackers' alleged origin is sufficient. Hebron, a city of 250,000, has been sealed off entirely. Heavy steel barriers block all vehicle traffic. Settlers attacked a delivery driver at a nearby junction, smashing his windshield and leaving glass in his eyes. The city's mayor, Yousef al-Jabari, states plainly: "Netanyahu and his gang are using Palestinian land to displace Palestinian people in order to achieve their political goals." The electoral mechanics are straightforward. Netanyahu's coalition trails. A security crisis creates an opportunity to demonstrate force. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cannot vote in these elections but absorb the full cost of the campaign. The bulldozers, the displacement, the flags draped over commandeered homes — these are campaign materials paid for with other people's lives and livelihoods. The destruction of Farsh al-Hawa's industrial base is not reversible on any short timeline. The ceramics plant, the workshops, the enterprises — these represented accumulated capital and employment for a city now sealed off from the outside world. The displacement of Ein Deir Baha residents has no announced end date. Ahmaro shops for children's clothes in the market, uncertain when or whether he will return home.
