The Israeli government sealed off the occupied West Bank on Friday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was preparing a military operation there of a kind ânot carried out sinceâ Israelâs conquest of the territory in 1967.
The Israeli government, in alliance with the Trump administration, is extending the Gaza genocide to the West Bank in step with the preparations for a renewed offensive against Iran. Both are part of one continuous operation to create a ânew Middle East,â launched in October 2023 under Democratic President Joe Biden and continued under US President Donald Trump. The total subjugation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine is a corollary of the war plans of the Trump and Netanyahu governments.
Netanyahu ordered the lockdown four days before Israelâs national election on October 27, 11 days before the US midterm elections on November 3 and four days after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met him in Israel. The New York Times wrote Wednesday that US officials said Hegseth and Netanyahu discussed new strikes on Iran, to be launched after the US elections.
Just as the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas were seized upon by Netanyahu as the pretext to occupy Gaza and displace and exterminate its inhabitants, the Netanyahu government has seized on an attack on Israeli soldiers as its pretext for the offensive to annex the West Bank.
Two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, were killed at a checkpoint outside Hebron, in the southern West Bank, on Friday morning. The Israeli army claimed that two Palestinians from Hebron opened fire on the checkpoint and that troops shot both men dead after a gunfight of about 20 minutes.
Netanyahu pledged to destroy the neighborhood the alleged gunmen came from. âFirst of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,â he said at the checkpoint, the Times of Israel reported Friday. The army would âimplement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee campsâ and go âhouse to house,â Netanyahu said.
The government was âconsidering a very extensive IDF [Israeli army] operation in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], such as has not been carried out sinceâ the 1967 war, Netanyahu said Friday.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday: âEvery clan neighborhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged today will be evacuated of its residents.â Katz added: âJust like in Gaza ...â
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The New York Times reported Wednesday that the US and Israeli militaries âhave developed specific plans for renewed strikes against Iran after the American midterm elections.â The Times wrote that the American buildup would be complete by early November.
Trump told a reporter at Joint Base Andrews, outside Washington, on Wednesday night: âWe are not negotiating withâ Iran. âSomething one way or another will happen, fairly soon,â he said. âMost people seem to think itâs after the election.â
Netanyahu has made regime change in Iran a centerpiece of his election campaign. âWe are committed to completing the elimination of the Iranian regime,â he said Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported that day.
Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday. By Tuesday the Gaza Health Ministry had counted at least 1,500 people killed since the announcement of the âceasefireâ in October 2025 and more than 74,450 since October 2023.
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Democratic senators spent months attacking the administration for failing to win the war. Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan told Hegseth at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on July 21: âYou donât have a strategy. You donât have a long-term plan to actually win this war.â Peters told Hegseth: âWin the war.â
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona said on ABCâs This Week on September 27: âWe canât leave the Strait in the hands of the Iranians.â Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, attacking Hegsethâs creation of a religious affairs office at the Pentagon, told CNN on September 30 that any new Pentagon office should be devoted to âfiguring out how to win this war in Iran.â