Two Hamas gunmen wound five Israelis near Hebron before soldiers kill them, and Netanyahu orders the West Bank closed through the Israeli election

The shooting began at about 7:30 in the morning near Yehuda Junction, outside Hebron. The two attackers, both 27 and both from Hebron, carried an M16 rifle and a handgun, Israeli officials said. Five Israelis were wounded and taken to hospitals inside Israel, two of them in serious condition. Troops who rushed to the scene hunted the gunmen through the surrounding area and killed both.

Picture is an illustration of the Hebron hills and a closed checkpoint.

Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting within hours. He said the two men were Hamas terrorists who had been planning a major attack on civilians, and he praised the soldiers who stopped them. He and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered an immediate cordon around Hebron and directed the military to prepare a full closure of the West Bank beginning Friday and lasting at least through October 27, when Israel votes in its first national election since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

No identities for the gunmen had been released by Friday morning Denver time, and Hamas had not claimed the attack in the reporting available at publication. The closure order lands on top of an already hard security posture in the territory, and a closure running through election day will halt the daily movement of Palestinian workers and goods across the line for days.

The timing matters on both sides of the line. Israelis go to the polls Tuesday with the blocs for and against Netanyahu running close, according to Reuters, and a foiled mass casualty attack four days before the vote puts security at the center of the final stretch of the campaign. In the West Bank, a multi day closure is collective punishment in the eyes of Palestinian residents and a routine security tool in the eyes of the Israeli government, and both descriptions will be argued loudly before Tuesday.