US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper flew over the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to conduct a review of operations.

The command said the visit coincided with with a "milestone of assisting Gulf partners in exporting more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil since summer".

The statement added that US CENTCOM had supported more than 3,000 commercial vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz in the last six months.

"We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Gulf partners and the shipping industry," Cooper said . "This visit underscores our strong commitment to continued freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz."

The statement added that US forces had successfully cleared international shipping lanes in the strait of naval mines over recent months, alleging that the mines had been laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Cooper, it said, “met with service members who supported the mine-clearing mission and thanked them for their commitment and dedication.”

CENTCOM said that the main transit routes through the strait remain free of naval mines and that more than 95% of vessels sailing through it had “passed through safely” in recent months.

Meanwhile, Iran has tied the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the fulfilment of its seven conditions, which include lifting the US naval blockade of its ports, easing sanctions on its oil exports, and halting hostilities on all fronts.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington must implement these conditions before the strait can be reopened, while reports have indicated that negotiations have stalled over disagreements concerning Iran’s demands.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked US President Donald Trump to provide additional support for his election campaign ahead of Israel's Knesset vote, Israel's Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

The channel cited a US source familiar with the details and a separate Israeli source who had been briefed on the matter, saying Netanyahu had stepped up his contacts with Trump in recent days in an effort to secure new statements supporting his continued tenure as prime minister.

The US source told the channel that Netanyahu had spoken with Trump twice over the previous three days and asked him to strengthen the endorsement he had expressed the previous week on the Truth Social platform. The source added that Netanyahu had personally proposed wording for additional statements of support that the US president could issue before the election.

The channel also quoted an Israeli source briefed on the communications as saying that Netanyahu had suggested Trump make phone calls to Israeli journalists to express his support for him, in an attempt to amplify the US president’s position during the final days of the election campaign.

According to the US source, White House officials view Netanyahu’s repeated attempts to secure additional support as a “sign of desperation” and an indication that the Israeli prime minister believes he is trailing in the electoral race.

The Likud Party, however, denied the report, insisting that Netanyahu had not asked Trump for any support, either in recent days or before Trump first announced his endorsement. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment, while the White House had not immediately responded to the channel’s request for comment.

Regarding the White House’s calculations, the channel quoted a US official as saying that Trump’s support for Netanyahu could serve the US president’s interests regardless of the election outcome. If Netanyahu wins or remains prime minister in a caretaker government, Trump could claim credit for politically rescuing him and use that leverage to pressure him into making concessions.

If Netanyahu loses and his rivals succeed in forming a new government, its leaders would have an interest in maintaining good relations with Trump, potentially diminishing the significance of his support for their opponent. The channel noted that some of Trump’s advisers see an opportunity to advance his Middle East agenda through an Israeli government led by someone other than Netanyahu, despite the close relationship between the two men, which has also experienced periods of tension.

On October 18, US President Donald Trump announced his full support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset elections, following weeks of hesitation about publicly taking a position. On Truth Social, Trump suggested that electing a different prime minister could affect cooperation between the United States and Israel, particularly on confronting Iran. He described Netanyahu as a key partner for Washington.

Israeli forces entered Syria’s southwestern Quneitra province on Sunday to resume excavation in the occupied territory, while a Syrian highway security officer was killed and two others wounded in a separate attack in neighbouring Daraa.

An Israeli force accompanied by a bulldozer and an excavator entered the al-Akar area, southwest of Hanout farm near Abu al-Ghaythar hill in rural Quneitra, according to the Horan Free League monitoring group.

The group said Israeli troops were continuing construction of a six-metre-high earth embankment, alongside excavation of a road within it measuring four metres deep and up to five metres wide.

The Golan Media Foundation said the work marked the resumption of the "Sufa 53" project after a pause of about six weeks. It warned that the embankment could extend into farmland and grazing areas, restricting residents’ access and threatening their livelihoods.

The foundation’s director, Fadi al-Asmai, told The New Arab that recent developments on the ground pointed towards an escalation ahead of the Israeli elections.

He linked the movements to two possible developments: an offensive by Suweida’s National Guard militia to retake the province’s western countryside, and Israeli efforts to establish a security belt beyond the Sufa 53 line.

Al-Asmai suggested that a National Guard offensive could seek to win support within the Druze community, which he linked to political calculations surrounding the Israeli elections. He said a wider Israeli security belt would leave local communities more vulnerable to pressure.

The developments come amid tensions in neighbouring Suweida, where Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups have faced off and Damascus has reinforced its positions along the province’s western front.

Israeli forces committed at least 88 violations across Quneitra, Daraa, Damascus and rural Damascus between 8 and 14 October, according to documentation by the Sijil Center.

Security officer killed in Daraa

Separately, a Syrian highway security officer was killed and two others wounded in an attack on a checkpoint in southern Daraa province early on Sunday.

Four gunmen riding two motorcycles attacked the checkpoint at Kharba village, on the road linking Bosra al-Sham and Daraa.

The officer killed was identified as Mohammed al-Miqdad, from Bosra al-Sham, and the wounded men as Omar al-Diyyat and Abdel Mawla al-Diyyat. Both were taken to Daraa National Hospital for treatment.

Checkpoint personnel captured two of the attackers, one of whom was wounded in the exchange of fire, while the other two fled, the network reported.

State news agency SANA said security forces had arrested attackers following a clash, without identifying their affiliations. Al-Miqdad’s funeral took place on Sunday with officials in attendance.

The 2027 edition of the Dakar Rally has been moved out of Saudi Arabia due to security concerns, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation said on Sunday.

The event, due to take place in January and which has been held in Saudi Arabia since 2020, would move to a different territory, with the location to be announced in the coming days, the ASO said in a statement.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Dakar Rally would take place in Africa, citing sources involved in the World Rally-Raid Championship.

"Amaury Sport Organisation and Saudi Motorsport Company have jointly decided that Dakar Saudi Arabia 2027, scheduled from 1 to 15 January, 2027, will not be held in the Kingdom, following recent developments in the region," the ASO said.

"This decision is exceptional and one-off."

The Dakar Rally is the latest sports event in Saudi Arabia to be disrupted amid attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis.

Golf's Asian Tour postponed the Saudi International indefinitely and cycling's Urban World Championships was cancelled earlier this month, while the tennis tournament Six Kings Slam was postponed to December.

The World Rally Championship also dropped Saudi Arabia from its calendar.

The ASO said that the Dakar Rally would return to Saudi Arabia for its landmark 50th edition in 2028.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday called for a campaign to cut gas consumption by at least 10 percent, with officials anticipating shortages as winter approaches.

While a major producer, Iran has long suffered shortages of natural gas, essential for powering heating systems, which have been exacerbated by war with the United States and Israel that began in February.

During the most intense phase of the fighting, which lasted nearly 40 days, the two countries struck key Iranian infrastructure including natural gas refineries, according to Tehran.

Winter in Iran often sees temperatures drop below freezing, especially in the country's north.

"To get through the approaching winter, a nationwide effort is essential ... to reduce gas consumption by at least 10 percent," said Ghalibaf in a video carried by Iranian media.

"Anyone who saves gas, regardless of the amount, will immediately receive the corresponding proceeds in their bank account, allowing everyone to see the tangible impact of those savings on their household budget."

Earlier in October, First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said the government anticipated a daily "gas shortfall of 100 million to 250 million cubic metres during the cold season because of the damage caused by the war," according to the official IRNA news agency.

He added that he hoped to restore the supply of around 100 million cubic metres by the start of winter.

An April ceasefire brought an end to the initial phase of intense bombardment but the two sides have continued to vie for control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas used to travel.

Iran has claimed control over the strait since the outbreak of the war and has regularly targeted vessels that attempt crossings without its authorisation.

In response, Washington has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports and in August announced what it called an "economic asphyxiation" campaign on Iran aimed at strangling its already battered economy.

Algeria's upper house of parliament on Sunday approved a proposal to deploy troops to neighbouring Niger to "protect energy facilities", a senator speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.

Any overseas deployment would mark a first since Algiers sent troops to support Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The legislator said 148 senators in the 174-seat body voted in favour of the move. The parliament's lower house is set to vote on the proposal later in the day, likely to approve it as well.

The rare measure from Algeria comes as Algiers and Niamey strengthen security ties after moving earlier this year to repair strained relations and following a thwarted mutiny in Niger in August.

Niger faces persistent attacks by armed groups, including in areas near the border with Algeria.

The neighbours, who share a 960-kilometre (600-mile) desert border, have agreed to deepen cooperation against jihadist violence, cross-border crime and trafficking.

"This decision marks a historic break with Algeria's doctrine of non-intervention in military conflicts beyond its borders," said Abdellah Akir, an international relations researcher.

"It's driven by the need to protect Algeria's strategic depth in the Sahel and to secure the future trans-Saharan gas pipeline," Akir told AFP.

The two countries have been working to build the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), a vast project to export natural gas to Europe from Nigeria via Niger.

'Strong signal'

Akir said the measure also sought to "send a strong signal to competing actors, including Morocco and the United Arab Emirates" - two countries with which Algiers no longer has diplomatic ties.

Geoff Porter, an analyst with the North Africa Risk Consulting group, said the move was "illustrative of a shift in Algerian policy".

Algeria "had tried to maintain its national interests and exert its regional influence through its customary means - dialogue, international law, multilateral forums," Porter told AFP.

"But in a multipolar and transactional world, those don't work anymore. Instead, Algeria moved toward more tangible means - actual physical presence."

"Algeria is still committed to its foreign policy principles," he added. "It's just demonstrating them in a new way."

Earlier this month, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signalled the possibility of military involvement in the Sahel country.

"We will protect Niger no matter what," he said in a televised address on 3 October. "There are countries, which I will not name, that have conspired against (Niger). We stand by its side."

"Today, we have interests," Tebboune then said. "We have reached agreements (with Niger) in the oil, mining and other sectors, and some are seeking to destroy all of this overnight."

Algeria's highly unusual measure to deploy troops outside its territory requires the approval of two-thirds of its parliament, according to a constitutional amendment from 2020.

Gifted warplanes

The vote followed a visit last Wednesday by Niger's Defence Minister Salifou Modi to Algeria, where he met with Tebboune and army chief Said Chengriha.

A military cooperation protocol was signed by the two sides, according to Algerian reports, but no details were given at the time.

The move also comes months after Algiers gifted four military helicopters to Niamey.

The warplanes were deployed at the request of Nigerien authorities, the Algerian defence ministry said.

Additionally, Algeria inaugurated a 40-megawatt power plant in June intended to supply electricity to Niamey and surrounding areas.

Algeria and Niger's relations had been strained for months following Algeria's downing last year of a drone from Mali.

The incident triggered a diplomatic row, with Niger joining fellow junta-led allies Mali and Burkina Faso in recalling its ambassador from Algiers.

Algeria and Mali have since resumed diplomatic ties.

Niger has been run by General Tiani since a coup in July 2023 that toppled the elected president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained ever since.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces re-election this week, is drawing criticism from economists and political rivals after suggesting Israel could use cryptocurrency to help shield its economy from potential international sanctions.

In an interview with Israel's Channel 10 on Friday, Netanyahu said he was preparing for a scenario in which broader sanctions were imposed on Israel.

Last month, Britain, France and Canada said they would block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank in what was the latest in a series of actions targeting Israel's settlement policy, underscoring its growing diplomatic isolation among some of its traditional allies.

"There could be sanctions, and sanctions on banks so you need to set up a bypass economy," Netanyahu said. "You know, there are currencies that can bypass (sanctions). We are also working on that."

Asked whether he was referring to cryptocurrency, Netanyahu replied: "Very true, very true," adding that blockchain technology was another possibility.

The comments drew a rare rebuke by the Bank of Israel, which said cryptocurrencies cannot serve as a route to bypass sanctions and that political leaders should focus on policy that would render such measures unnecessary.

"The right course for Israel's economy is to preserve our economic relations with our main trading partners, and to focus on preventing sanctions and their negative impact on the economy," it said.

Netanyahu on Sunday continued to defend his record, urging voters to back him and saying he and US President Donald Trump had two years left to work together to topple Iran's rulers.

Plan draws criticism

On Sunday, more than 100 economists, including former Bank of Israel officials, ex-central bank governor Jacob Frenkel and several Nobel laureates, signed a letter expressing alarm over Netanyahu's proposal. They said it would lead to higher unemployment, a fall in foreign investment and the collapse of Israel's economic standing in the world.

"As we have seen in countries that have suffered similar sanctions, such as South Africa, Iran, and Russia, the living standards of Israeli citizens would plummet dramatically, and the state's ability to finance its security and defend itself against its enemies would be severely damaged," the letter read.

"Netanyahu is knowingly leading the State of Israel toward boycott and international economic isolation, and all he has to offer the Israeli economy is a puzzling solution, one accepted in criminal organisations, that will not help in the slightest."

Netanyahu's main rival in Tuesday's election, Gadi Eisenkot, called the crypto plan "madness" and said he feared that the "BibiCoin policy" would drive companies abroad and undermine national security.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said: "Netanyahu has gone off the rails ... He promises the citizens of Israel before these elections that they'll be standing in line for an hour and a half for bread, like in Russia and Iran."

Opinion polls point to a potential stalemate in the election with neither Netanyahu's ruling coalition nor an opposition alliance securing a governing majority in parliament.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that a potential resumption of war with Israel and the United States would not change his country's positions.

The remarks come amid mounting US and Israeli threats of renewed attacks on Iran, as President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington "may do another little Epic Fury," referring to the US-Israeli campaign on Iran that began on 28 February.

"Recently, there has been talk of a new war, but I am already thinking about the post-war period. Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same," said Araghchi during a televised event in Tehran.

"They have already done so twice and have seen the results. If they want to try again, they know they will achieve no different outcome from those of the past."

An April 8 ceasefire between Iran and the United States put an end to the most intense fighting, apart from sporadic exchanges of fire in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy supplies.

These military flare-ups have lulled in recent weeks.

Iran has claimed control over the strait since the outbreak of the war and has regularly targeted vessels that attempt crossing without its authorisation - moves strongly opposed by Washington and countries in the region.

In response, the US has been maintaining a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

In June, Iran agreed with the United States to a memorandum of understanding laying out a pathway to a permanent settlement of the conflict, only for the deal to later unravel as each side accused the other of violating it.

Tehran has since called for a return to the accord to end the conflict.

"The current war has changed everything. We must accept that new realities are taking hold. Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be the same, and the management of the strait will no longer be the same," said Araghchi.

"To achieve peace and stability, our region must move towards the complete absence of foreign forces."

The United States has updated travel advisories for 13 countries across the Middle East, citing the risk of further attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and alleged Iranian efforts to target American officials in the region. The revisions come alongside reductions in staffing at several US embassies amid concerns over a wider escalation.

The advisories, dated 23 October, cover Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The updates revise the security warnings rather than raise the countries’ existing advisory levels.

"The possibility of regional effects, including the potential for flight disruptions, makes a region-wide advisory update important and prudent," a State Department official said in comments shared by PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin.

The department said the revisions reflected increased potential for armed attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis and Iranian efforts to target US government officials. Those claims come amid renewed fighting between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition, including missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory.

Advisories by country, and what they mean:

Eight countries are listed at Level 3, meaning Americans should reconsider travel, while five remain at Level 4 — "do not travel", the State Department’s highest warning. The country-specific warnings are:

• Bahrain: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and other security risks.
• Iran: Level 4 — Do not travel. Washington cites unrest, kidnapping or hostage-taking, terrorism, wrongful detention and other risks.
• Iraq: Level 4 — Do not travel. The advisory lists unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping or hostage-taking, terrorism and other risks.
• Israel: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and unrest.
• Jordan: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and other security risks.
• Kuwait: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. Washington cites crime and other risks.
• Lebanon: Level 4 — Do not travel. The advisory lists unrest, crime, kidnapping or hostage-taking, terrorism and other risks.
• Oman: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and other security risks.
• Qatar: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists “other” risks, rather than a separate terrorism, crime or unrest indicator.
• Saudi Arabia: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and other security risks. The update follows Houthi attacks on Saudi airports, including the 10 October strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
• Syria: Level 4 — Do not travel. Washington cites unrest, crime, kidnapping or hostage-taking, terrorism and other risks.
• United Arab Emirates: Level 3 — Reconsider travel. The advisory lists terrorism and other security risks.
• Yemen: Level 4 — Do not travel. The advisory lists unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping or hostage-taking, terrorism and other risks.

 

US authorities have urged Americans to monitor embassy alerts and airline operations, prepare for possible flight cancellations or airspace closures, and maintain emergency departure plans that do not depend on US government assistance. They also recommend enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive security updates.

The warnings follow Friday’s reports that Washington was reducing staffing at its embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE. Axios first reported an intelligence memo alleging that Iranian plots against American personnel had reached "advanced stages"; the Associated Press subsequently obtained the memo and confirmed the staffing reductions with US officials.

Those four embassies remain open under restricted operations, and personnel are not subject to the same compulsory departure order issued on Wednesday for non-essential US staff and their families in Saudi Arabia.

US officials have denied that the staffing changes are linked to prospective new US or Israeli strikes on Iran. The advisory updates themselves do not establish that another military operation is imminent, although the move comes amid mounting US and Israeli threats of renewed attacks on Iran, with US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack warning that Washington could "absolutely" strike Iran before the upcoming US midterm elections.

Israeli forces have demolished Palestinian homes and businesses in Hebron and forcibly displaced around 2,500 people, according to Palestinian rights monitors, as a sweeping military crackdown entered its third day on Sunday with further raids and arrests across the southern occupied West Bank.

Bulldozers have torn through residential and commercial areas, with footage showing homes reduced to rubble across several blocks. The demolitions follow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to destroy the neighbourhood from which two Palestinian gunmen allegedly came after an attack on an Israeli military checkpoint on Friday.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), citing preliminary estimates from Hebron municipality, said approximately 500 families comprising around 2,500 people had been forced from their homes in an area spanning 350 dunums, or 35 hectares. Israeli forces have sealed the area and continued house searches, leaving displaced residents uncertain when they will be allowed to return.

The operation has targeted Ein Deir Baha and surrounding neighbourhoods, alongside homes, businesses and industrial facilities in Farsh al-Hawa.

PCHR documented the demolition of a three-storey house, a commercial facility selling car parts and the walls surrounding a tile and ceramics business’s yard. The organisation said the house was demolished despite its owner having obtained an interim court order following an earlier demolition notice.

Families were ordered out over military loudspeakers late on Friday, according to PCHR. Soldiers searched residents and vehicles at checkpoints as they fled, while some families sought shelter with relatives. One displaced resident told the organisation that soldiers had not said when his family could return.

The destruction has accompanied a broader closure of Hebron, with Israeli forces blocking entrances and restricting movement between the city and surrounding towns and villages. Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari said that the city and several neighbouring villages were under a complete blockade.

Raids and arrests spread across Hebron

Israeli forces arrested 20 Palestinians in the latest wave of raids across Hebron, as the military expanded its incursions into the city and surrounding towns.

Overnight on Saturday, soldiers raided homes in most of Hebron’s neighbourhoods and "abused" their occupants, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Further raids were reported in the nearby towns of Dura, Yatta, as-Samu and Tarqumiya, where residents were forcibly taken from their homes.

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces fired tear gas during raids on al-Fawwar refugee camp and the town of Taffuh, both near Hebron.

Visiting Hebron on Friday with Defence Minister Israel Katz, Netanyahu pledged to destroy and transform the neighbourhood from which the attackers allegedly came.

"First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely," he said. "We are going to implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds."

His remarks referred to military operations in northern West Bank refugee camps, including Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, where tens of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 2025. Katz explicitly linked the Hebron operation to those campaigns, saying: "The Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron."

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a defence ministry role overseeing civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank, called for a military campaign "exactly like in Gaza or Lebanon". He said he had personally ordered the immediate demolition of a row of structures near the site of Friday’s shooting, describing them as illegally built.

The escalation comes days before Israel’s general election on Tuesday, 27 October, when the military says it will close all land crossings with the occupied West Bank.

Restrictions announced on Saturday also bar Palestinian workers from entering Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jordan Valley, with limited exceptions before a broader closure takes effect on election day. Tuesday’s restrictions will include industrial zones.

The New Arab's live blog is now closed. Here were the top stories:

• Saudi Arabia has downed 10 Houthi ballistic missiles and a drone fired against the capital, Riyadh, according to the Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised Yemeni government. Explosions were heard in Riyadh, according to AFP.
• King Khalid International Airport has reopened terminals one and two following Houthi missile strikes in early October that killed 17 people and wounded over 330. Terminals three and four, which were struck by the Houthis, are yet to reopen.
• Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is warning that any Israeli and US attack will not change the country's position, saying at an event in Tehran: "Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same."

Now, onto our live coverage:

Israeli forces pushed into the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and displaced around 250 families, some in the middle of the night, vowing to exact a heavy price for a deadly attack on soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure on Israel to protect residents, who said soldiers announced the evacuations over loudspeakers late at night as they packed what they could and left.

Israeli forces have already demolished some buildings in the immediate vicinity of where the attack took place.

Israel's military began largescale raids on the occupied West Bank on Friday, which it said would last several days and include searches and building demolitions, after two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians were killed in a clash at a military checkpoint.

Hebron governor Khaled Dudin told AFP the army started in the attackers' neighbourhood "but there is no guarantee that the operation will not expand", calling it a form of "collective punishment".

Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, head of Hebron's municipality, said around 1,300 people faced losing their homes, in addition to the 1,200 already displaced.

ICC fugitive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a tight race to keep his job in Tuesday's vote, having campaigned on promises to keep Israelis safe, and he and his right-wing allies visited the scene of the incident to pledge an even harder line on Palestinian resistance.

Israeli forces were searching targets and questioning suspects to "locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure" in the Hebron area from where they said the attackers had emerged, according to a joint statement from the Israeli military and Shin Bet domestic security agency.

Forces were also "demolishing illegal structures that could pose a security threat at the site of the encounter", they said, adding that "counterterrorism operations" were underway at dozens of locations.

Netanyahu threatened on Friday to collectively punish the neighbourhood from where the attackers came by demolishing it.

Palestinian group Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised Friday's attack on two Israeli soldiers as a "heroic operation" and called on supporters to carry out more.

A Hebron-based AFP photographer heading to another assignment witnessed the gun battle break out at the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint between the soldiers and two men armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle.

Israeli forces eventually shot dead the two Palestinians.

Netanyahu later ordered a lockdown in the occupied West Bank.

Visiting Hebron, the premier said he and Defence Minister Israel Katz were "considering a very extensive IDF operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since" the 1967 war.

The first step would see Israeli forces "enter the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure", he said.

The military would apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, he said, the scene of a large-scale assault in January 2025 that forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from pursuing "plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through a spokesman, voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on all sides.

'Exactly like Gaza'

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position within the defence ministry, called for a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank "exactly like in Gaza".

He said authorities were "sending an unequivocal message to our enemies: if you mess with the Jews, you will pay a very painful price".

National Security Minister and far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir said the Ramallah-based "Palestinian Authority must be dismantled".

"It is impossible for there to be an authority within Judea and Samaria that incites murder, calls for murder, and works for murder," he told reporters.

No evidence suggests that the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, was connected to Friday's attack.

Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich are prominent advocates of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have proliferated under Netanyahu's government.

Netanyahu vowed to "pursue Hamas terrorists" everywhere, adding: "You have no place to hide."

Israel vowed to obliterate the group in the wake of the 7 October attacks, later a war on Gaza that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians and been determined a genocide by UN experts and leading rights groups.

The army crackdown on the occupied West Bank comes as Israeli settlers, often under army protection, continue attacks against Palestinian olive harvesters.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,117 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.