West Bank: after Hebron, Netanyahu promises a historic operation, Europe must set its limits

On Friday morning, at around 7:30 a.m. according to the Times of Israel, two gunmen opened fire on a military checkpoint at the entrance to Hebron, in the south of the occupied West Bank. According to the Israeli army, quoted by AFP, two soldiers were killed and three others wounded. The two attackers, described by the army as Palestinians from Hebron, were shot dead after an exchange of fire lasting about twenty minutes.

The chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said that a large quantity of ammunition found in their vehicle suggested a larger attack had been planned. Hamas hailed a "heroic operation", without formally claiming it, AFP reports.

A sweeping response, four days before the vote

The political response was immediate. Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the closure of Hebron and asked the army to prepare one for the whole West Bank. He cancelled the Likud campaign events scheduled for the day. In the early afternoon, according to AFP, he announced a large-scale operation: evacuation of residents from the attackers' neighbourhood, "house to house" searches, and the prospect of an operation unprecedented since the Six-Day War of 1967, whose timing he would set himself.

The context weighs heavily. Israelis vote on Tuesday 27 October. According to the polling average published by Jewish Insider before the legal ban on publishing new surveys from this Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc would win 54 seats and the opposition led by former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot 50, both far from the 61-seat majority. AP notes that the government had warned of attacks ahead of the vote, and that this is the fourth closure of the entire territory in a month.

The positions at stake

The Israeli government puts forward an argument that cannot be brushed aside: two young soldiers are dead, and a state has a duty to protect its citizens. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir goes further. He is calling for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and believes, according to AFP, that one must not wait "for a 7 October to happen". According to AP, he considers that the safety of residents matters infinitely more than Palestinians' freedom of movement.

The opposition stays on the terrain of security. Gadi Eisenkot praised the courage of the soldiers who prevented a more serious attack, without challenging the announced response at this stage. On the Palestinian side, no official reaction from the Authority appeared in the dispatches consulted. But the closure weighs on an entire population: according to AP, roadblocks and checkpoints linking Palestinian villages to the main roads are closed, while Israeli roads remain open to settlers.

Legitimate security, forbidden collective punishment

Israel's right to defend itself is not in question. What is in question is proportion and target. Evacuating an entire neighbourhood because two of its residents carried out an attack, demolishing homes, sealing off a territory of nearly three million inhabitants: these measures hit first and foremost civilians who have done nothing. Yet Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, ratified by France as well as by Israel, prohibits collective penalties in an occupied territory.

The context makes escalation even more dangerous. According to an AFP count based on data from the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 1,113 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023, mostly by Israeli soldiers. At least 49 Israelis have been killed over the same period, according to Israeli figures. Settler violence has increased during the olive harvest. On 17 October, in Taybeh, settlers attacked a convoy of French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and kicked the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, Bernard Baudoux, aged 78. The European Union "firmly" condemned the attack, Toute l'Europe recalls. On 13 October, according to AFP, Benjamin Netanyahu had also stated that people displaced from the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem camps would not return, despite a Supreme Court ruling.

Nor can the timing be ignored. It would be unfair to claim that the Prime Minister is acting first and foremost out of electoral calculation, and nothing establishes it. But a campaign fought on fear always encourages one-upmanship, and it is civilians, on both sides, who pay the price.

What France and Europe can do

For Paris, this is not a distant affair. A French elected official was assaulted six days ago. France has recognised the State of Palestine and defends a two-state solution that each new large-scale operation makes less likely. On 11 October, it was still urging Palestinian leaders to hold elections as soon as possible, according to AFP. This democratic demand also applies to security: it cannot be built on the humiliation of an entire people.

The European Union, Israel's leading trading partner, has levers: the association agreement, which includes a human rights clause, and sanctions against violent settlers. A Gaullist line would be to state clearly, before Tuesday, that Europe condemns the Hebron attack, supports Israel's right to pursue its perpetrators, and rejects any collective punishment or forced displacement of population. The question remains open: whoever wins on Tuesday, will Paris and Brussels have the courage to make international law the condition of their partnership?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.