Israeli forces have driven around 1,200 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Saturday, following an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian Authority urged international pressure on Israel to protect residents, while the head of Hebron’s municipality warned that further displacements could follow. Israel’s military said its operation was aimed at finding militants and weapons.

Yousef Zouhair Al-Jabari, the municipal chief, said around 1,300 more Palestinians faced losing their homes, beyond the 1,200 already displaced. His figures distinguish between people who have been forced out and those he said remain at risk; the additional number does not represent completed displacements. The warning puts the prospect of further losses of homes alongside the immediate consequences of an operation that, according to Al-Jabari, has also destroyed commercial property and roads in the city.

The military action followed Friday’s attack at a checkpoint near Hebron, where two Palestinian gunmen opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military said both gunmen were killed by gunfire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the army would undertake a major operation in response. The military identified Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha, neighbourhoods close to the checkpoint at Hebron’s entrance, as the locations of its search for militants and weapons.

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The Israeli military also said in a statement that it would conduct demolitions. That account of the operation’s purpose contrasted with the Palestinian Authority’s description of the action as “collective punishment”. On Saturday, the authority appealed for international pressure to safeguard Palestinians following the displacements. The competing accounts centre on the relationship between the response to the checkpoint killings and its impact on residents: Israel cited a search for militants and weapons, while Palestinian officials challenged the wider consequences for the population.

Al-Jabari said Israeli forces had demolished shops, factories, homes and roads, and characterised the response as unjustified and disproportionate. Residents said many of those expelled had no connection to the Palestinian attackers. Majdi Nasser, who was among those forced from his home, appealed to officials for support. He said his household was not involved in the attack, pointed to the presence of children and described the action against residents as arbitrary. His account challenged any association between his displacement and responsibility for the killings.

Residents also reported seeing Israeli soldiers place black X marks on houses after their Palestinian occupants had been made to leave. The meaning of those marks was not immediately clear. The reported markings therefore did not establish what would happen to the properties. The military’s stated intention to carry out demolitions, Al-Jabari’s account of buildings already destroyed and his warning about further displacement describe different aspects of the operation, rather than a single confirmed tally of homes lost.

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The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a non-governmental organisation, said Israeli forces arrested around 70 Palestinians over Friday and Saturday. Israeli officials had not commented on arrests. That figure concerns people reportedly detained, whereas the municipal figures concern residents displaced or facing the loss of their homes. The reported arrests covered the period spanning the deadly checkpoint attack and the subsequent military action, but their location and connection to the operation were not specified.

The operation also comes ahead of parliamentary elections on Tuesday. Opinion polls indicate that Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition could lose its majority. Al-Jabari alleged that electoral considerations were driving the military action, accusing Netanyahu and ministers in his government of seeking support from settlers. His claim about political motivation stands apart from the military’s stated objective of locating militants and weapons. Netanyahu’s announcement of a major operation came on Friday after the soldiers were killed at the checkpoint.

The Hebron operation is unfolding against a wider backdrop of settlement expansion and restrictions on movement in the West Bank. Settlements have expanded rapidly under Netanyahu’s government; United Nations bodies and most countries consider them illegal, a position Israel disputes. Israel has also blocked access points to most Palestinian cities and towns across the West Bank, sharply restricting Palestinians’ ability to travel. Those closures restrict movement beyond the neighbourhoods identified in the Hebron operation.

Yousef Mur, a resident of Yatta, said the closures had prevented him from taking his daughter to Jerusalem for cancer treatment. He said stun grenades were fired towards people when they attempted to cross, frightening his daughter. His account illustrates the difficulties residents described in travelling under the restrictions. In Hebron, the immediate prospect of further displacement remains central to Al-Jabari’s warning, as the military plans demolitions and the Palestinian Authority seeks international intervention to protect those affected.