Israeli forces pushed into the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and displaced around 2,000 residents, vowing to exact a heavy price for an attack the day before in which two Palestinians killed two soldiers before being gunned down.

The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure on Israel to protect residents, who said soldiers announced the evacuations over loudspeakers late at night as they packed what they could and left. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the army had evacuated about 2,000 residents from the Hebron neighborhood of the two Palestinian assailants, and that "they will not be allowed to return ... until we've finished dealing with all the Hamas issues in Hebron."

The Israeli Army said that over Friday and Saturday, it operated in 40 different areas throughout the West Bank. It said its forces "apprehended approximately 40 suspects, including terrorists affiliated with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, as well as suspects involved in incitement, public disorder, and rock-hurling."

Hamas, while not claiming credit, hailed Friday's attack and called on Palestinians to carry out more. Days before tight elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Defense Ministry overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank, said he personally ordered "the immediate demolition of a row of illegal structures" following Friday's attack.

"Anyone who messes with us will quickly understand that he will pay a painful price," he wrote on In the Hebron neighborhood of Ein Deir Baha, nestled between two hills, vacated buildings were marked by X's and the streets were deserted, save a pair of Israeli military vehicles. Israeli flags were draped on a house on the slope apparently taken over by troops.

Higazi Shawer al-Tamimi, 70, a shopkeeper who plays a leadership role in the neighborhood, said he was awakened at 1:00 am by soldiers and a senior officer who said he had to leave. "I asked them how long the evacuation would last.

They said: 'Until further notice.'"

He told Agence France-Presse he had only a short time to pack, adding that for some residents, getting out of the neighbourhood was an ordeal. "For example, my wife's mother, who is 90 years old and lives in the area, had to be carried out because she is ill," he said.

To Tamimi, this is only happening because Netanyahu wants to win the election on "the blood of the Palestinian people."

He said people were not going anywhere. "I have lived through all the stages of the occupation, and I will die here." The Palestinian Authority said it was mobilizing its diplomats to seek "urgent international action that goes beyond condemnation" to prevent forced displacement. Tamimi's brother, Khaled Shawer al-Tamimi, 68, was staying with his son after the evacuation order.

"The army was announcing through loudspeakers: 'Leave the area.'

So we left." He told AFP he was surprised to hear Friday's assailants came from the neighborhood, which he described as middle-class and law-abiding.

"We have never seen or even heard a single gunshot being fired," he said from his son's sitting room as children flitted about. "Why should I be displaced from my house?" he continued. The attackers "are the ones who carried out the act, and if the Israeli government wants to punish them, it can punish them."

Hebron Gov. Khaled Dudin told AFP the army started in the attackers' neighborhood "but there is no guarantee that the operation will not expand," calling it a form of "collective punishment." The governor said 150 families had been affected, while Hebron mayor Youssef al-Jaabari and local activist Issa Amro put the figure at 250.

The Israeli military said the operation would last several days. But Netanyahu suggested bigger action was coming. Asked if he agreed with the idea of dismantling the Palestinian Authority, as has been suggested by his far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu referred to Israeli military operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

"We transformed the Middle East," he said, repeating a common campaign refrain, in an interview with i24News.

Netanyahu has linked the assailants to Hamas, the militant group in Gaza that carried out the October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel's history.

The attack came amid rising tensions in the West Bank as Israeli settlers, who enjoy strong support from Netanyahu's far-right allies, ramp up seizures of Palestinian land and attacks.

Rights group Yesh Din reported 672 incidents of settler violence over the past 26 days, nearly half related to the annual olive harvest.