HEBRON (Palestinian Territories) — Israeli forces pushed into the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and displaced some 250 families, some in the middle of the night, vowing a heavy price over a deadly attack on soldiers.

Days before tight elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967, after Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers Friday at a checkpoint near Hebron, a flashpoint city in which hardline Israeli settlers live surrounded by local Palestinians.

In the neighbourhood of Ein Dir Baha nestled between two hills, buildings were marked by X’s showing they had been cleared of people.

The streets in the area were deserted of people and cars other than a pair of Israeli military vehicles, with an Israeli flag draped on a house apparently taken over by troops.

Higazi Shawer al-Tamimi, 70, a shopkeeper who sells live chickens and feed and plays a leadership role in the neighbourhood, said the army woke him up at 1 am and told him and other residents to leave.

He had only two hours and packed just clothes and his official papers. Many families had no vehicles and tried to find ways to stay with relatives elsewhere.

This is only happening “because Netanyahu wants to win” the election, he said.

“He wants to win it with the blood of the Palestinian people,” he said. “But we won’t go anywhere.”

Around one-third of Hebron has been targeted, Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin told AFP.

“They started in the neighbourhood from which the people who carried out the attack came, but there is no guarantee that the operation will not expand,” he said.