Reporting Period: 23- 25 October

As of 25 October 2026, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) military operation had continued for three consecutive days in the neighbourhoods of Khallet Al Magharbeh, Ein Deir Baha and Al Jalada in the city of Hebron, with the IOF continuing to impose a security cordon on these neighbourhoods, preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes after forcing their displacement on Saturday, 24 October 2026.

On 23 October 2026, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu issued an official statement from Hebron in the unlawfully occupied West Bank, where he announced State plans for the IOF to cordon off Palestinian cities, including Hebron, ordering the widespread destruction of Palestinian properties, and the mass forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron, “to destroy this place, to change it completely”. This continues Israel’s fragmentation, depopulation and settlement of Hebron – the largest city in the West Bank.

On Monday, 26 October 2026, Hebron Municipality reported that approximately 488 families had been displaced, comprising an estimated 3,171 individuals, including: 209 infants and young children, 258 elderly people, 137 pregnant or breastfeeding women, 32 persons with disabilities, and 198 Palestinians suffering from chronic illnesses.

The IOF are continuing to carry out extensive searches and raids on the homes of forcibly displaced Palestinians. According to testimony obtained by Al-Haq, some Palestinian homes were used as accommodation for the IOF at certain times. One eyewitness, who lives near the closed-off area, explained to Al-Haq’s field researcher that the IOF enter some houses and stay there for several hours before withdrawing. As they leave, soldiers mark an ‘X’ on the gate of any house they have finished searching. Another displaced Palestinian relayed to Al-Haq that he had managed to secretly return to his home on Sunday, 25 October 2026. He noticed that his house had been searched and its contents ransacked; it appeared that the IOF had been eating and sleeping there. According to his testimony, the IOF also looted money and other possessions.

The IOF turned one Palestinian house into a military barracks and raised Israeli flags on it. Further, as a result of the military operation, tens of shops in the IOF-targeted areas of Khallet Al Magharbeh, Ein Deir Baha and Al Jalada have been closed – their owners prevented from reopening them –– causing them financial loss. The IOF has blocked a number of roads leading to the neighbourhoods targeted by the military operation with earth mounds.

In Ein Deir Baha and Khallet Al Magharbeh, the IOF used steel welding to seal off the homes of two deceased Palestinians, Hamouda al-Ja’ba and Ahmad al-Ja’ba, who were killed by the IOF on 23 October 2026, during an attack on an IOF military checkpoint in Hebron (apartheid infrastructure manned by the unlawfully present IOF in Hebron). The sealing of the deceased men’s homes was approved by Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who stated that the military “intends to continue to advance the process of demolishing their homes”, which requires a court decision. The IOF proceeded to confiscate tens of Palestinian vehicles –– which the IOF claimed were illegal –– removing them using specialised winches.

Displaced Palestinians have been prevented from returning to their homes by the IOF. According to Al-Haq’s documentation, an elderly displaced man from the Khallet Al Magharbeh area, H.T., 66, attempted to return to his home at midday on Sunday, 25 October 2026, to fetch some medication, but the IOF prevented him from doing so and assaulted him, causing bruises to various parts of his body.

Since the morning of Friday 23 October 2026, the IOF have continued to seal off the main entrances to the city of Hebron, preventing Palestinians from leaving or entering it. Preschools, schools, and universities have all been impacted. The Ibrahimi Mosque was partially opened on Sunday 5 October 2026, before reclosing it on the morning of Monday 26 October 2026. The IOF have now closed the Ibrahimi Mosque and are preventing the call to prayer and the holding of prayers.

Al-Haq’s field researcher noted, “a sense of anxiety amongst the displaced people in the city, as there is no set date for their return to their homes, and some of them have no safe place to stay following their displacement”. Many of the displaced are staying with relatives outside the area targeted by the military operation, whilst others have rented flats for temporary accommodation.

The acts carried out by the IOF in Hebron since 23 October 2026 violate international law, including international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to international crimes prosecutable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including genocide and incitement to genocide. To begin, given the illegality of Israel’s military occupation and the illegal settler colonial apartheid regime, the entire military operation in Hebron constitutes a prohibited act of aggression jus ad bellum, in violation of peremptory norms governing the use of force, and the denial of the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination.1

The destruction of civilian property, including the sealing and punitive demolition of houses as collective punishment, is prohibited under Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, amounting to grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and war crimes. The pillage of the private property of the occupied Palestinian population amounts to acts of pillage in breach of Article 47 of the Hague Regulations. The assault and battery of an elderly man constitutes prohibited acts of inhumane and degrading treatment and corporal punishment in breach of Article 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The forced transfer of Palestinians further breaches Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and which, when carried out with an intent to destroy the Palestinian group, amounts to genocide. In particular, “[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive”. The forced transfer of the Palestinian population, in conditions intended to destroy the group, for example, where the institutions for protecting Palestine refugees such as UNRWA, are systematically dismantled and destroyed, and humanitarian organisations are systematically prevented from entering the OPT, creates conditions of life intended to destroy the group –– making their continued existence as a group and the realisation of their self-determination unviable.

Al-Haq warns that statements by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu “to destroy this place and change it completely”, and calls from Israel’s Minister of Defence for Hebron to be addressed and dismantled “[j]ust like in Gaza”, along with Minister Smotrich calls for “a comprehensive military campaign in [the West Bank] to dismantle the PA . . . exactly as we did in Gaza”2, are indicative of genocidal intent. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stated that: “Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home. Israel must ensure compensation and reparation for unlawful evictions and demolitions, and associated displacement.”