One hour to leave: Hebron families displaced by Israel’s military operation don’t know when they’ll return

At dawn on October 24, dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed Muammar al-Awiwi’s home in Hebron’s Deir Bahha neighborhood and ordered the family to leave the area immediately. The 53-year-old walked out with his wife and five children, carrying only their identity papers and a few clothes they managed to pack while rushing out. They made their way on foot, frightened and disoriented, to his father’s house in Haret al-Sheikh. “We only took our ID papers and some clothes, quickly,” al-Awiwi said. “They didn’t let us take anything else from the house”. Hebron is now in its fifth day of an Israeli military operation that has sealed the city’s entrances and exits, restricted movement inside its neighborhoods, and forced families out of Deir Bahha, al-Jaldeh, Farsh al-Hawa and other areas. The Ibrahimi Mosque has also been closed to Muslim worshipers. The military operation was launched following a shooting attack on October 24 near Hebron city, which killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded several others. Al-Awiwi’s neighbor, Majda Hussein Shweiki al-Ja’ba, a widow known as Umm Yazan, only had an hour to flee. “The occupation army arrived in military vehicles. They got out and called on us on loud speakers, while we were inside the house, to evacuate immediately,” she said. “Then some of them stormed our home and told us we had to leave within one hour, and that everyone had to go”. “We felt fear and grief as they told us we had to leave right away, and that each person was allowed to carry only one small bag,” she said. “We took the essentials: Identification papers and clothes, nothing more.” The eldest of her five children, three boys and two girls, is in her final year of high school, preparing for the official tawjihi exams. “She didn’t know which books and school clothes to take. She panicked, gathered whatever she could hold, and now she can’t study,” Umm Yazan said. “Her brothers and sisters are grieving for the home they left.” The family is now staying at her brother’s house in Aqabet Tfouh village, four kilometers away. “I don’t know how long things will stay like this, we don’t know when we’ll return, and what will happen to our homes,” she said. According to the relief and support committee formed by the Hebron Governorate, the municipality has registered 407 affected families, totaling 2,649 people. Among them are 1,109 children, including 180 under the age of two, as well as 218 elderly people, 115 pregnant or breastfeeding women, 28 people with disabilities, and 162 people with chronic illnesses, Hebron mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari told Mondoweiss. Of those families, 168 have no safe place to stay. Another 198 are sheltering with relatives, 19 are in rented homes, and 22 found other arrangements. The committee lists food, cash assistance, medicine, medical supplies, infant formula, diapers, water, clothing, mattresses, blankets, and psychosocial support among the urgent needs. ‘The area has been completely emptied‘ Al-Ja’bari said that Israeli forces first ordered residents out over loudspeakers. When people refused and insisted on staying, soldiers stormed their homes and removed them by force. “The area has been completely emptied,” al-Ja’bari said, adding that Israeli forces have turned some residential buildings into interrogation centers. The municipality stepped in to help families who found themselves in the open at night, moving some to temporary shelters and helping others reach relatives with support from the local community. It opened the Saad Childhood Center and the Korean-Palestinian Center to house displaced families, al-Ja’bari said, with local institutions coordinating the response despite limited resources. “The city is facing a dire situation on every front: in the field, humanitarian, and economic. The targeted residential area in Deir Bahha covers roughly 330 dunams and contains about 495 housing units, home to nearly 2,200 people, including children, women, and the elderly,” Al-Ja’bari said. At an emergency meeting convened by the governorate with the municipality, Palestinian security services and official and civil-society institutions, Hebron Governor Khaled Doudin said the priority was protecting residents and supporting the families forced to leave their homes. He assigned a committee to follow up on affected families, assess their needs, and coordinate urgent aid. A paralyzed economy Hebron is one of the West Bank’s main industrial and commercial centers, and the closures have brought much of that activity to a halt. According to al-Ja’bari, workers cannot reach their jobs, goods cannot move in or out of the city, and a number of factories have paused operations. Israeli demolitions have destroyed streets, facilities, and infrastructure, including water lines and sewage networks, he said. The mayor described streets of Hebron as nearly empty, with Israeli military vehicles patrolling day and night, spreading fear among residents. Residents and local officials say the operation compounds years of restrictions on parts of Hebron, including closed streets in the Old City and around the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Ibrahimi Mosque has now been closed to Muslim worshipers for three days, al-Ja’bari said. Its staff, imam, and muezzin have been barred from entering, suspending the call to prayer. “The mosque’s gates remain closed to Palestinians, while settlers are allowed in,” he said. Al-Ja’bari said the closure violates freedom of worship and the mosque’s religious and historical standing. He called on international institutions, Arab and European states, and the United States to demand its reopening and respect the agreements and laws governing Hebron. Collective punishment Human rights activist Hisham Sharabati said emptying residential neighborhoods of their residents, without operational military necessity, is collective punishment, and that such measures may amount to war crimes. “The damage extends beyond homes to economic facilities,” Sharabati said, at a time when Palestinians’ living conditions have been deteriorating for years. Palestinians working inside the Green Line face severe economic hardship, he said, while public-sector employees have not received their full salaries for years. Demolishing businesses, he said, “deepens the crisis and undermines families’ ability to meet their basic needs.” Suhail Ashour, a Hebron municipal council member and member of the crisis cell, said the municipality is preparing a legal file documenting the violations and damage to the city and its residents, with the aim of bringing it before the International Criminal Court. The file will include residents’ testimonies, home evacuations, property damage, and movement restrictions, Ashour said, and the municipality plans to form a dedicated team to monitor damage, record testimonies, and add new incidents as they occur. Ashour cited Articles 33, 49, and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which govern collective punishment, forcible transfer of populations and the destruction of property in occupied territory. “Depriving families of safe housing and forcing them out of their homes should not be treated as mere field measures,” he said. “These acts demand documentation and legal accountability.” For the displaced residents of Hebron, they are left wondering when they can return, and what will be awaiting them. Al-Awiwi said the sudden expulsions at gun-point left deep psychological scars, especially for children torn from everything familiar, with no idea whether or not they will return home. He hopes that this ends with as few losses as possible and that families can get their lives back. “Today we are displaced in my father’s house,” he said. “And we don’t know when we’ll go back, will I find my home still standing?”