Netanyahu Orders Total West Bank Closure Days Before Election After Deadly Attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a full, indefinite closure of the occupied West Bank and an immediate lockdown of Hebron following a shooting attack that wounded five Israelis on Friday, four days before national elections. Two of the wounded are in serious condition. The Israeli military said its forces killed the two suspected Palestinian attackers at the scene. According to a military source, the attackers arrived at the Judea junction near Hebron armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol and opened fire on Israelis. A security source cited by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the gunmen arrived in a vehicle with Israeli license plates, and the exchange of fire lasted for an extended period. "I have instructed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the security forces to immediately seal off the city of Hebron and prepare for a total closure of the entire Judea and Samaria region [the biblical name used by the government for the West Bank], effective from today," Netanyahu said in a statement posted on social media. The army said soldiers and Border Police officers launched "counterterrorism offensive operations in Judea and Samaria — specifically in the Hebron area, which has been placed under a security cordon." It added that troops were "currently operating inside the homes of the terrorists and other suspects." Seventy wanted individuals have been arrested over the past week, some linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the military. Netanyahu praised the soldiers who stopped the attack and announced reinforced security operations and further arrests across the occupied West Bank. The attack comes as tension runs high in Israel and the Palestinian territories before Tuesday's general election, a vote crucial for Netanyahu. During the campaign, attention has focused more on the West Bank than on Gaza because of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. Last weekend, settlers attacked an American journalist for The Washington Post and a delegation of European diplomats. After news of the attack, Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party said he had canceled all of the party's political events scheduled for Friday morning. Likud currently leads Israel's coalition government, the most right-wing in the country's history, but polls do not give it victory in Tuesday's election, where it competes with the Yashar! party for first place. Even if it wins, surveys suggest Likud and Netanyahu would struggle to form another coalition with far-right and religious parties.