The Israeli military forced around 1,200 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian official said, a day after a Palestinian attack killed two Israeli soldiers.

The operation in the al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, near the military checkpoint at the entrance to the city, is meant to search for militants and weapons, and the military said it would carry out demolitions. Yousef Zouhair al-Jabari, the head of Hebron's municipality, said around 1,300 more residents faced losing their homes in addition to the 1,200 already displaced.