Hebron Residents Protest Israeli Operation as Thousands Are Displaced During Election Day

Israeli troops fired a stun grenade on Tuesday to disperse Palestinians protesting an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Hebron, which has forced thousands of residents out of one neighborhood. The military said it used the grenade so that its operation could continue.

The protest took place as Israelis voted in a national election in which the country's posture in the West Bank has been a major political issue. It followed the deaths last week of two Israeli soldiers, who were shot by Palestinian gunmen at a checkpoint on Friday.

Men, women and children joined the demonstration. One elderly man carried a placard reading: "No to collective punishment, no to closures, and no to displacement."

Some Palestinian officials have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of timing a West Bank crackdown to coincide with the vote, in order to energize his right-wing supporters. The government says the operation is a response to the attack on its soldiers.

On Monday, the United Nations said more than 3,000 Palestinians had been forced from their homes by the operation, which targeted neighborhoods near the checkpoint where the soldiers were killed. UN human rights chief Volker Türk called collective punishment "a grave violation of international law." He added: "Threats to empty and erase entire neighborhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing."

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said troops would carry out demolitions in the area. It also said soldiers had not found any weapons while searching houses.

Since Friday's attack, Israel has blocked the entrances to most Palestinian cities and towns across the West Bank, severely limiting freedom of movement. Noura Nassar, a displaced resident who attended the protest, said the blockages made it hard to get medical treatment. "Where is the democracy in all of this? Their elections are today, sure, but what about us? Aren't we human beings? We want to go out, we want to visit the doctor," she said.

Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, both oppose creating an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Residents expelled from the Hebron neighborhood said the election would do little to change conditions in territories Israel has occupied since 1967. Another expelled resident, Sana' Salman Abu Sneineh, said: "Among themselves they will elect who is the oppressor and who will destroy the Palestinian people. That is their election."

Netanyahu's government has presided over rapid expansion of Israeli settlements, which UN bodies and most countries consider illegal, though Israel disputes this. Under his right-wing coalition, militant settler violence against Palestinians has also surged.