Israel imposes curfew on roughly 25,000 Palestinians in Hebron H2

Israeli forces have placed roughly 25,000 Palestinians under curfew in parts of Hebron’s Israeli-controlled H2 area, U.N. humanitarian officials reported, in an operation marked by heavy military deployment and significant disruptions to civilian life and services.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described the action as a large-scale operation that included military vehicles, snipers positioned on rooftops and the closure of six internal roads within the H2 enclave. U.N. briefings circulated between Jan. 19 and Jan. 20 said families were confined to their homes, complicating access to food, medicine and other essentials.

Humanitarian services were severely affected. Four bakeries suspended operations, cutting a critical source of daily bread for residents, and two shops that supply roughly 4,000 people through U.N.-issued vouchers remained closed. Education was suspended in more than a dozen schools, affecting thousands of students, and officials said measures were being explored to enable remote learning where connectivity and safety allow.

The area has also suffered significant power outages since the weekend after a local power station was damaged, OCHA reported. With the curfew in place, humanitarian agencies and local authorities are coordinating to allow technical teams into the area to restore electricity, while steps are being taken to permit emergency medical evacuations despite movement constraints.

The U.N. warned that the compounded impact of movement restrictions is undermining the delivery of food, medical care and other essential services in Hebron and across the occupied Palestinian territory. OCHA emphasized the importance of facilitating humanitarian operations both in Hebron and elsewhere, noting how local access restrictions can rapidly translate into medical and food security crises for vulnerable populations.

The Hebron operation comes amid a broader pattern of violence and dispossession in the West Bank documented by Palestinian bodies and cited in U.N. briefings. Palestinian authorities reported that nearly 4,723 attacks by illegal Israeli settlers occurred across the occupied West Bank during 2025, resulting in 14 Palestinian deaths and the displacement of 13 Bedouin communities totaling some 1,090 people. Palestinian data shows about 770,000 Israeli settlers across more than 180 settlements and 256 outposts in the West Bank by the end of 2024, a footprint the U.N. says is illegal under international law and damaging to prospects for a two-state solution.

U.N. agencies also linked the Hebron restrictions to continuing humanitarian pressures in Gaza, where the ceasefire has remained fragile beyond the 100-day mark. Gaza health authorities reported 14 Palestinians killed and 23 injured in the preceding 48 hours. OCHA’s cumulative summary since the start of the ceasefire lists 463 dead and 1,269 injured. The World Food Programme warned of fragile delivery systems even as it reaches more than 1 million people monthly, urging additional safe humanitarian corridors from Egypt and Jordan and through the Salah Ad Din road inside Gaza to increase aid volumes and reduce insecurity.

U.N. officials and humanitarian coordinators are pressing for rapid, predictable access for technicians, medical teams and aid convoys into the H2 area to avert further deterioration in civilian conditions. Verification of the precise boundaries and duration of the curfew, and any official casualty or arrest figures linked to the operation, remained outstanding as agencies sought coordinated access.