Israeli Army Radio Calls Hebron, West Bank, Palestinian Territories, Operation a Failure, Says Netanyahu’s Government Prolonged It for Electoral Considerations

Israeli Army Radio said on Monday that the military operation in the Hebron governorate in the southern West Bank was “a failure,” and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had prolonged it for electoral considerations. The station made the assessment in a commentary by its military correspondent, Doron Kadosh, after the Israeli army withdrew from Hebron following an operation that lasted 10 days.

Kadosh said: “Once again, political considerations are interfering in security operations, as the political level refuses to withdraw from the city of Hebron before the elections, and agrees to do so only after they are held.” He described Hebron as “a city linked to the Hamas movement and full of weapons,” and said that an operation lasting 10 days that ended with the seizure of only 4 weapons was a failed one. He also pointed to a “gap between the statements made by politicians before the operation began and what the outcome was in the end.”

According to the commentary, Defense Minister Israel Katz had promised to apply “the model of the Jenin refugee camp” in Hebron, and Netanyahu had pledged to apply a “successful and firm model” used in refugee camps, saying this was “exactly what we will do here, in this neighborhood of the city of Hebron.” Kadosh claimed that the Hebron operation “has nothing to do with the operations conducted in the refugee camps in the West Bank,” even though the operation involved the destruction of homes and facilities and the displacement of Palestinians.

Kadosh described conditions in the Jenin and Tulkarm camps in the north of the West Bank. He said residents have been displaced from their homes for nearly two years, dozens of homes have been razed, entire roads have been bulldozed and rebuilt, large quantities of weapons have been seized, and the Israeli army maintains a permanent presence in those camps. The report noted that the army began a military operation in the Jenin camp and the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps in January 2025, involving demolitions, road construction and displacement, and that Palestinians are still prevented from returning to their homes. Displaced families carry the cost of decisions taken far from their doorways, a reminder of why the vulnerable need protecting (Psalm 82:3).

Kadosh said the army had judged that there was “no security justification at present for repeating the model used in the refugee camps in the northern West Bank, in other areas of the West Bank,” and that Katz had repeatedly directed the army in recent months to study other places where the model could be applied, though the army’s response was that “there is no justification.” Kadosh accused Katz of seeking, ahead of the elections, to show that he had succeeded in expelling Palestinians from their homes, and of exploiting the Hebron attack to announce the application of that model. He added: “Israeli army forces were forced to remain in Hebron, contrary to the opinion of their field commanders, because the political level needed to create an appearance that mimics the refugee camp model.”

The Hebron operation began on October 23 of last year, following a shooting attack carried out by two Palestinians that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured 3 others, according to the report. The army later killed the perpetrators.

Israeli Channel 12 separately quoted unnamed government sources as saying: “We agreed to the Israeli army’s request to end the operation, on two conditions.” The sources said the first condition was “expanding the scope of application of the new tactic, namely evacuating residents from urban areas following any attack,” and the second was “conveying a message to the Palestinian Authority that if another attack occurs, the evacuations will be more extensive.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)