2 soldiers killed in West Bank shooting; IDF believes gunmen planned larger attack

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 slain soldiers were named as Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon. They both served in the 775th “Ari” Battalion of the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Brigade. Roytman was a squad commander.

After conducting a preliminary probe, the Israel Defense Forces said it believed the gunmen were planning to carry out a larger attack against Israeli civilians on Route 35, but realized they would not be able to reach the highway and decided to open fire at the temporary checkpoint instead.

They were identified as Mohammad Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, 27-year-old Hebron residents. They were members of the same family, though as of late Friday morning their exact relationship remained unclear.

It was also not clear if they were working alone or with a larger network. The Hamas terror group — which has a strong presence in Hebron — called the shooting “heroic,” but did not claim responsibility for it.

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.

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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 Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated two of the wounded in critical condition at the scene. They were later declared dead, and the military announced they were soldiers. Three others were described as lightly to moderately wounded and were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem.

Footage from the attack showed a prolonged gunfight between the Palestinian assailants and IDF troops. According to the military, the gunfight lasted over 20 minutes.

One surveillance video showed the gunmen exiting their car, firing at the checkpoint, before retreating. Later, the gunmen were seen climbing over a fence in the area.

“Take cover, come to the ambulance, it’s bulletproof,” a medic could be heard calling out in one clip, as gunshots rang out.

“We haven’t yet managed to extract the wounded; there’s been active shooting for more than 20 minutes,” he could be heard saying in another video.

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Photos published by the AFP news agency showed the moments of the attack. AFP said their Hebron-based photographer was en route to another assignment when he witnessed the gun battle break out at the checkpoint.

The deputy commander of the Ari Battalion, a company commander, and an officer of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion who was stationed nearby rushed to the scene, flanked the two gunmen on the side street, and killed them.

The IDF and Shin Bet were investigating whether the two gunmen acted alone or were part of a larger terror network and received funding and direction from a terror group, the army said.

The preliminary probe found no specific warning of the attack. The IDF was already on heightened alert ahead of Tuesday’s national elections and amid violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians.

Following the shooting, the IDF said it launched a raid in the Hebron area. Troops were operating at the homes of the two gunmen, the military said, amid plans to demolish them.

Hebron and other Palestinian villages and towns in the area were under full closure, according to the military.

“This was a serious attack. The troops’ swift action prevented an even more serious attack and further harm to civilians and security forces,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said during an assessment with officers on the shooting.

Zamir noted that “a large quantity of ammunition was found in the vehicle in which the terrorists arrived at the scene of the attack, which was intended to be used to carry out a larger-scale attack.”

He ordered that preparations be made for additional forces to be deployed to the Central Command if required.

PM orders army to prepare for full West Bank lockdown

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situation assessment with security chiefs and ordered preparations for a full lockdown across the West Bank, he said on X.

The premier said he was joined by Zamir, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Shin Bet head David Zini, National Security Adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra, and IDF Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.

“Our forces are operating with increased intensity to thwart terrorism and are carrying out extensive waves of arrests,” said Netanyahu. “We will pursue Hamas terrorists and those who send them, everywhere and at all times. You have no safe haven.”

The West Bank and Gaza were already expected to be under lockdown on Monday and Tuesday, as a security measure amid the national elections.

Later Friday, Netanyahu visited the site of the shooting attack where he intensified his characterization of Israel’s planned response.

He said Israel would “destroy” the entire Hebron neighborhood from which the gunmen hailed.

“First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “But we are going to do something that has not been done until now: We will implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds.”

Across the West Bank, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the IDF has cleared tens of thousands of residents from refugee camps where terrorist groups have been operating, leaving them homeless.

“We will evacuate the residents, we will go house to house, we will remove the weapons there as well, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed,” Netanyahu said.

Israel will also clear homes built without permits along roads in the West Bank, says Netanyahu, citing “a threat to our forces.”

Netanyahu says that the IDF has plans to carry out a major operation in the West Bank, the largest since Israel captured the territory in 1967: “The IDF is prepared to carry it out, and we will determine the timing, but it is on the way.”

Critics have long accused Israel of engaging in collective punishment against Palestinians in response to terror attacks.

The Hebron governorate is already under dire economic straits, as the IDF has closed five of the seven entrances to the region where over 1 million Palestinians live, in what has ground life to a halt for the West Bank’s main economic hub.

Ben Gvir, Smotrich call for PA to be ‘dismantled’

In the wake of the attack, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled. The Ramallah-based PA governs the major Palestinian cities in the West Bank, including most of Hebron.

“We have to act before it’s too late. The Palestinian Authority must be dismantled and demilitarized, and its terror infrastructure wiped out completely,” said Ben Gvir, who leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.

There was no indication of any PA involvement in the incident.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, separately wrote: “There’s no avoiding a large-scale military operation in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, gather weapons and eliminate terrorists.”

While hailing the current government for expanding settlements in the territory, he wrote that “this work won’t be complete without a change to Israel’s security paradigm and the defeat of terrorists through an expansive military campaign.”

A short while later, Smotrich announced that he’d “given an instruction to destroy, immediately, a large swath of illegal Arab structures in the proximity of the scene of the attack.”

“The order will go into effect in the coming hours, and will be carried out over the course of the afternoon,” said Smotrich, chair of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

Avigdor Liberman, of the hawkish, opposition-aligned Yisrael Beytenu party, posted on X: “How many more attacks do we need to absorb before we understand this policy of containment can’t continue? You eliminate terror, you don’t contain it!”

Centrist party leaders Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid all posted statements wishing for the recovery of those wounded and praising the IDF forces that ended the attack.

Leon Kraiem contributed to this report.