Israeli forces have raided towns, arresting dozens of Palestinians, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a full lockdown of the occupied West Bank following an attack in the city of Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers.

At least 15 towns in the north have been targeted, Global News Insight correspondents reported on Saturday, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya.

Meanwhile, in the southern occupied West Bank, clashes broke out Saturday morning between Israelis and Palestinians in the Dura area of Hebron, Israel’s Walla news outlet reported.

This comes after Israeli bulldozers demolished a three-storey building in the city, with families given five minutes to collect their belongings. Israeli forces also ordered hundreds of Palestinian families to forcibly evacuate their homes in the Ein Deir Bahha area of Hebron and its surroundings.

Israeli troops also surrounded the home of one of the suspects in the shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in Hebron.

‘Widespread fears’

Global News Insight’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Birzeit in the occupied West Bank, described “a very tough night” for residents of al-Jalda neighbourhood in Hebron, where 200 families were forcibly displaced from their homes.

“They carried small bags of clothes with them but did not have time to take any other belongings,” she said.

“The municipality of Hebron has set up temporary shelters, but it remains unclear how long the families will be displaced.”

The Israeli army said late on Friday that its operation in Hebron would last “for several days”, but Palestinians fear it could continue much longer.

Odeh said the Israeli prime minister’s pledge to replicate what he described as the successful model in Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps has led to fears of months of displacement and the possible loss of homes to large-scale demolitions.

In Nablus, Israeli forces carried out arrests and raided Palestinian homes in the villages of Jalud and Qaryut. Arrests were also reported in Arrabeh and Burqin, near Jenin, while Israeli forces entered Tubas and the nearby town of Aqqaba.

Further east, Israeli forces entered Jericho and the nearby Aqabat Jabr refugee camp.

“Across the wider occupied West Bank, villages and towns are completely isolated because roads and checkpoints between Palestinian communities have been closed,” Odeh said.

With the lockdown, nearly 1,000 checkpoints and gates across the West Bank will be closed, affecting millions of Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority warned of the danger of the “ongoing Israeli escalation” and called on the “international community to intervene urgently”.

Meanwhile, Hamas said in a statement that the “campaigns and escalations carried out by the occupation and its criminal settlers against our people will only fuel further outrage”.

‘A small prison’

Netanyahu gave the order on Friday, shortly after the Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinian gunmen who attacked a reserve battalion near the illegal Israeli settlement of Telem, killing two soldiers.

Israel’s ambulance service initially reported that at least five Israeli soldiers were injured, two of whom later died. All Israeli settlements, including Telem, are illegal under international law.

The attack and clampdown came amid heightened tensions across the Palestinian territory as Israeli settlers and soldiers engage in violent pogroms. Attacks on olive harvesters have been rife as aggression has been on the rise before the coming Israeli elections on Tuesday.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to the killing of the Israeli soldiers by calling for Israel to take full control of the West Bank, in which the Israeli government is encouraging the construction of numerous settlements.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said incitement from far-right Israeli ministers is making the situation worse.

The closure turns every city and village into “a small prison”, with checkpoints and gates blocking healthcare, the economy and education, he told Global News Insight. He warned that collective punishment “will lead to explosions”.