Israeli Forces Lock Down Hebron, Postponing Groom's Wedding and Stranding Passports

Haidar Yahya Tamimi spent four months preparing for his wedding, buying furniture, selecting a suit, and sending out invitations to about 1,000 guests. Then an Israeli military operation in Hebron forced him out of his home on October 23. The 27-year-old radiology technician has postponed the ceremony indefinitely, and the items he and his fiancee Ruba bought for their new home are now inside a house he cannot reach.

The lockdown began after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint at Hebron's western entrance on October 23. Israeli forces killed both gunmen that day. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an immediate lockdown in Hebron, and military bulldozers demolished buildings near the attack site. Troops then went house to house in the al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha neighborhoods, where the attackers lived.

Hebron's municipality said more than 3,100 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced by Monday, October 26. Tamimi and his family were ordered to leave al-Jalada on the evening of October 23, departing in the middle of the night with only what they could carry.

Tamimi walked to a spot where he could see his house but could not get closer because Israeli soldiers were present. He said relatives showed him security-camera footage of soldiers entering the home, and he does not know its current condition. "I looked at the house and saw that my dream was supposed to happen here, but it has been postponed indefinitely," he said. The couple has not set a new date for the wedding.

The lockdown has also affected more than 100 businesses, according to local estimates. Kamal al-Sharif, 35, manages the Rukn al-Asala travel agency in al-Jalada, an office he has shared with his father for 16 years. He cannot reach it.

The agency was organizing an Umrah pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia for 15 people scheduled to depart on Wednesday, October 28. Their passports are inside the office, so the trip is likely to be postponed or canceled. Seven passports that arrived from the Chinese embassy on October 22 are also locked inside. They belong to traders who planned to leave for China on October 26.

One trader in his 30s, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said he had planned to attend an exhibition in China to source equipment for his family business. He has visas but not his passport, and his flight and hotel bookings have been canceled.

The Israeli military operation in Hebron began on October 23, and Hebron's municipality reported more than 3,100 displaced Palestinians by Monday.