One hour to leave: Hebron families displaced by Israel’s military operation
Monjed Jadou reports in Mondoweiss on 28 October 2026:
At dawn on October 24, dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed Muammar al-Awiwi’s home in Hebron’s Deir Bahha neighborhood and ordered the family to leave the area immediately.
The 53-year-old walked out with his wife and five children, carrying only their identity papers and a few clothes they managed to pack while rushing out. They made their way on foot, frightened and disoriented, to his father’s house in Haret al-Sheikh. “We only took our ID papers and some clothes, quickly,” al-Awiwi said. “They didn’t let us take anything else from the house”.
Hebron is now in its fifth day of an Israeli military operation that has sealed the city’s entrances and exits, restricted movement inside its neighborhoods, and forced families out of Deir Bahha, al-Jaldeh, Farsh al-Hawa and other areas. The Ibrahimi Mosque has also been closed to Muslim worshipers.
The military operation was launched following a shooting attack on October 24 near Hebron city, which killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded several others.
Al-Awiwi’s neighbor, Majda Hussein Shweiki al-Ja’ba, a widow known as Umm Yazan, only had an hour to flee.
“The occupation army arrived in military vehicles. They got out and called on us on loud speakers, while we were inside the house, to evacuate immediately,” she said. “Then some of them stormed our home and told us we had to leave within one hour, and that everyone had to go”.
“We felt fear and grief as they told us we had to leave right away, and that each person was allowed to carry only one small bag,” she said. “We took the essentials: Identification papers and clothes, nothing more.”
The eldest of her five children, three boys and two girls, is in her final year of high school, preparing for the official tawjihi exams. “She didn’t know which books and school clothes to take. She panicked, gathered whatever she could hold, and now she can’t study,” Umm Yazan said. “Her brothers and sisters are grieving for the home they left.”