War in the Middle East: Israel launches West Bank operations

All political events this Friday and ordered a closure of the West Bank following a shooting there that wounded at least five Israelis. The Israeli army says it's launched offensive counterterrorism operations in the territory after thwarting a terror attack against Israeli civilians. Two suspected Palestinian assailants were shot and killed at a checkpoint near Hebron. For more on this, I'm joined by our international affairs editor, Kativan Borgis Danny It's great to see you. So, Kat, at this point, what more do we know about what's happening in the West Bank? Well, look, what we know is that Israeli officials say that two Palestinian men armed with an M-16 rifle and a handgun attacked a security checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank before being in a shootout with Israeli forces and being killed by those Israeli forces. The Israeli emergency services say that five Israelis, all in their 20s, were injured in that attack and that two at least are currently in critical condition, though it is unclear whether those who were wounded were civilians or were Israeli soldiers. That we don't know at this point. Now, of course, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was quick to react. And one of his first reactions was to point the finger at Hamas and saying that it appears that Hamas terrorists were planning a major attack, pointing to the large quantities of weapons and ammunition that he said were found at the scene of that attack. Now, authorities are not giving for now any details on what that major attack would have entailed, what the target was, and they didn't give more indication about the identities of the two men besides saying that they were from the Hebron area. Hamas has reacted to the attack. They called it a natural and legitimate response to the ongoing crimes and brutal attacks against our people. But they stopped short of endorsing, of claiming actual responsibility for this attack, even though the Israeli authorities, as I was saying, are pointing the finger at Hamas. And this is happening just four days ahead of elections in Israel, elections on Tuesday. How have Israeli political figures been reacting to all of this? Well, look, the immediate reactions came, of course, from the whole political class. But I was talking about the prime minister, and I'll get a little bit deeper into what he said in his statement. He had been warning of potential attacks in the lead up to this vote. And now he has said, as you mentioned, that he ordered the immediate closing off of the city of Hebron, And he ordered the Israeli forces to prepare for a full lockdown across all of Judea and Samaria, starting today using, of course, the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank. What's interesting, this is the statement that he posted on X in Hebrew originally that has been translated. And that line that was outlined in yellow is actually not the same one as the one that was posted in the English language. So you're seeing the English, the Hebrew there talking about this full lockdown of the occupied West Bank in the English language statement that was sent to foreign reporters to the press. He simply speaks of additional measures to prevent terrorist attacks originating from the occupied West Bank. So not exactly as strong of a worded statement as it is in Hebrew, which is obviously for a domestic audience just four days before those elections. He was not the only one to react, obviously. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, he went even further. He called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, even though there is absolutely no evidence so far pointing or suggesting that the Palestinian Authority, which rules the occupied West Bank, had anything to do with this attack. His partner in the far right, Bezalel Smotrich, he's the finance minister. He went all the way to saying that he wanted a military campaign, quote, exactly like in Gaza and in Lebanon to be happening in the West Bank. And he said in the next government, this will be one of the first measures that we must demand and apply. So using this as a political tool to motivate his base on the far right. In contrast, you had Gadi Eisenkot, who is the top rival of Benjamin Netanyahu in these elections, who simply focused on hailing the heroism, as he said, of the soldiers who thwarted that attack and speaking and focusing on the recovery of those who were wounded in the attack. But it gives you an idea of how heightened the tensions and the concerns about security are just a few days before those elections. Thank you so much.