Speaking in a televised address from the site of Friday's checkpoint shooting, Netanyahu said Israel would "act to demolish this place, to change it completely." The comments came four days before Israeli national elections on October 27, in which polls show Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, neck and neck.
The demolitions in the Ein Deir Baha district have been extensive. The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and that about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon. A spokesperson said roughly 300 families had been displaced, with some sheltering in community halls and children's play areas.
The Israeli action follows an attack Friday on a military checkpoint outside Hebron in which two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on soldiers. After a 20-minute firefight, two Israeli soldiers were killed, three were wounded and the two attackers were also killed. The gunmen were reported to be from the Ein Deir Baha area.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is standing for election in a smaller coalition party, was filmed wearing body armour in front of a Palestinian building being demolished. He said he had ordered "the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site" and called for "a comprehensive military campaign … exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon."
The Israeli military declined to comment when approached by the Guardian.
Palestinian and Israeli rights groups condemned the demolitions as collective punishment. "We are being collectively punished for something we neither did nor supported," Hebron activist Issa Amro told the Guardian. "Our suffering is being turned into political material for Israel's elections, while innocent families pay the price." Amro said his sister's family was among those evicted.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called on foreign governments to act to prevent "another wave of ethnic cleansing and war crimes." The United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory has described the recent surge in settler violence and land seizures as a "new level of dehumanization of Palestinians."
Analysts linked the scale of Israel's response to the election campaign. "For Netanyahu, his ticket before the election is, 'I'm Mr. Security,'" said Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He called the displacement of families from the gunmen's neighbourhood without evidence of connection "collective punishment" and argued that preventing attacks required "giving hope" to those living peacefully.