Nearly a week after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in Hebron, the Israeli military's sweeping lockdown of the West Bank city shows no sign of easing, with the United Nations now warning that the response has displaced thousands of Palestinians and demolished dozens of acres of homes and buildings.

The crisis began last Friday when Israeli officials said two soldiers were killed and three others seriously wounded in a gun battle in Hebron. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by ordering the city sealed and instructing security forces to prepare for a broader lockdown across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces went on to raid at least 15 West Bank towns, arresting roughly 70 Palestinians.

Thousands displaced, dozens of acres flattened

Estimates of how many people have been forced from their homes in Hebron vary by source: the city's mayor, Yousef al-Ja'bari, put the number at about 2,200, while Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz cited roughly 2,000. The Hebron municipality says about 35 hectares — roughly 86 acres — of homes and buildings have been destroyed or marked for demolition, with video circulating of bulldozers tearing through residential blocks.

Katz has said residents will not be allowed to return until the military finishes what he called "all the Hamas issues in Hebron." Nearly 1,000 checkpoints and barriers across the West Bank were sealed in the crackdown's opening days, and Palestinian laborers were barred from entering Israel for work on multiple days this week.

RESIDENTS WON'T RETURN UNTIL THE MILITARY FINISHES "ALL THE HAMAS ISSUES IN HEBRON" — ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER ISRAEL KATZ

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the restrictions are choking off Palestinians' access to food, medical care and jobs, and he separately raised alarm over the home demolitions and the risk of further displacement. The Palestinian Authority has called the measures "collective punishment," while the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has gone further, saying the scale of the demolitions and displacement could amount to war crimes. Israeli officials have defended the operation as a necessary response to an attack that killed two of their soldiers.

What's next

The lockdown comes as Israel is still absorbing the results of this week's deadlocked national election, leaving Netanyahu's government focused on both coalition math in Jerusalem and security operations in Hebron simultaneously. With no timeline given for lifting the closures, residents and aid groups say the humanitarian toll — lost wages, blocked medical access, and mounting demolitions — will keep climbing the longer the standoff continues.