Palestinian resistance groups praise West Bank shooting as Israel orders lockdown

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) issued a statement on Friday praising a shooting operation in al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank, describing it as a direct response to what it called crimes committed by Israeli authorities, the Israeli military and extremist Jewish settlers across the occupied Palestinian territories. According to Press TV, the coalition said Israel's ongoing actions would neither ensure the security of the occupying entity nor break the will of the Palestinian people, and that the shooting had dealt a heavy blow to Israel's security, military and intelligence apparatus.

The Hamas resistance group called the shooting heroic but did not claim responsibility for it. The Lebanese Hezbollah movement also hailed the operation as heroic, describing it as a natural and legitimate response to what it called the Israeli enemy's ongoing crimes, including killings, destruction and attacks on holy sites.

Israeli media identified the two slain soldiers as Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon. Roytman was reportedly a squad commander. The Israeli army alleged that the two Palestinians killed in the incident were planning a larger attack against settlers on Route 35, but decided to open fire on a temporary checkpoint instead after concluding they could not reach the highway. The two were named as Mohammad Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, both 27-year-old residents of al-Khalil and members of the same family, though their exact relationship was not immediately clear.

According to the account, the men arrived by car at about 7:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) at the checkpoint at the exit to al-Khalil, got out on a side street armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, and opened fire using buildings as cover. Footage showed a prolonged gunfight that the Israeli military said lasted more than 20 minutes.

After the shooting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situation assessment with security chiefs and ordered preparations for a full lockdown across the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu said he was joined by military chief of staff Eyal Zamir, war minister Israel Katz, Shin Bet director David Zini, top military adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra and the head of the army's central command, Avi Bluth.

Israel's security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled, saying it must be demilitarized and its infrastructure wiped out, despite no indication of any PA involvement in the incident. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich separately wrote that there was no avoiding a large-scale military action in the West Bank to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, gather weapons and eliminate fighters.

A United Nations report published in July said more than 900 Palestinians had been injured in Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, while 76 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, or died of their injuries, over the same period. The report by Mehr News, citing Press TV and MNA, added these details.