Hundreds of soldiers backed by armoured vehicles raid the Palestinian city, imposing a lockdown and installing new iron gates.
The Israeli military has launched a “large-scale” operation in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, deploying hundreds of soldiers and heavy machinery in a move that has paralysed the city’s southern districts.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, the Israeli army and the internal security service, Shin Bet, confirmed the offensive, stating it aims to “thwart terror infrastructure” and confiscate weapons in the Jebel Johar area.
The army warned the operation would continue for “several days”.
‘Defensive Shield’ tactics
Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Montaser Nassar described a state of total lockdown.
“We are in the so-called southern region of Hebron, which has been under a curfew since dawn,” Nassar said. “There is an intensive deployment of occupation forces … including bulldozers and tracked armoured vehicles.”
“We witnessed tracked armoured vehicles … the last time we saw these in Hebron was during the second Intifada during [Israeli] Operation Defensive Shield,” he said, noting the significance of the heavy equipment.
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