Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three members of his right-wing government spoke from the site that afternoon and vowed a forceful response. "We warned a few weeks ago about attempts by our enemies to harm us, our citizens and our soldiers ahead of the election," Netanyahu said. "We will act to destroy this place." CTV reported that he promised a "house-by-house" operation in Hebron, where the suspected gunmen were from, and ordered sweeping searches and demolitions. It also reported that he blamed Hamas, and that no evidence linked the Palestinian Authority to the gunmen. Far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called for the military to take full control of the West Bank from the Palestinian Authority. Smotrich said "anyone who messes with us will quickly understand that he will pay a painful price." The Korea Herald reported that, as finance minister, he ordered the demolition of illegal structures.

The military then launched an operation across the West Bank over the weekend covering more than 400 locations. It said it arrested 40 Palestinians it described as affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Palestinian Prisoner Society said the army arrested 50 Palestinians in Hebron alone since Friday. The military said troops were "conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches" in the area where the gunmen operated, and it told residents to evacuate Deir Bahha, the neighbourhood of the suspected gunmen.

The number of people forced out of their homes depends on who is counting. Hebron municipal officials said 200 to 300 families left Deir Bahha and four surrounding neighbourhoods overnight, most going to other parts of the city, while Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin put it at 150 families. Defense Minister Israel Katz acknowledged on Saturday evening that about 2,000 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced. He said they would not be allowed to return until "Hamas infrastructure" in the city was dismantled. Mayor Youssef al-Jabari said on Sunday that about 2,200 people had been forced out, and that five commercial and industrial structures and a three-story residential building had been demolished. A local relief committee counted 2,649 displaced on Monday, when the offensive entered its fourth day. The Palestinian Authority calls the displacement collective punishment and has asked for international intervention.

Anadolu reported that the army closed all entrances to Hebron and surrounding villages, seized Palestinian vehicles in the Al-Jilda and Deir Bahha areas, and divided a street in Jabal al-Rahma between Palestinians and Israeli settlers. At some military gates, people passed sacks of flour and gas canisters through to the other side. An elderly man pushed his wife in a wheelchair through an opening beside one gate, and another family tried to get through to reach medical appointments. Some people crossed on foot after roads were closed to traffic. Activist Issa Amro and shopkeeper Higazi Shawer al-Tamimi expressed shock at being targeted in a middle-class neighbourhood. "We have never seen or even heard a single gunshot being fired," Amro said. The military closed crossings into Israel for most Palestinian workers with permits on Sunday and Monday, and said they would stay closed until after the elections.

The operation came just before an Israeli election widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership and his security policies during three years of war. Brad Lander, a U.S. Democratic congressional candidate visiting the area, described the response as part of an "apartheid system" meant to make Palestinian life impossible. Yishai Fleisher, a candidate for the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, argued that Israel must defend itself from a "hostile majority."

Hebron is one of the most tense cities in the West Bank and the only place where Jewish settlers live in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian area under Israeli military protection. The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry says six Israelis have been killed in West Bank attacks this year and 112 Palestinians, including suspected gunmen. About 3 million Palestinians and 540,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.