Israeli forces pulled out of two Hebron neighbourhoods on Monday after a ten-day operation that forced 3,189 Palestinians from their homes. Families began returning to damaged houses, and some found no home to go back to.

Hebron Municipality counted 491 families displaced from Jildah and ’Ein Deir Bahah, 15 homes and other structures demolished and 327 shops forced to close. It put the city’s direct economic losses at more than $3.8 million a day. In the operation’s first week, Israeli forces had ordered residents out by loudspeaker and taken over vacated homes.

The mayor, Yousef Al-Jaabari, said Israeli forces had turned several homes into barracks and field interrogation centres, and that restrictions remained at the entrances to the city. The Palestinian Civil Defence warned returning residents not to enter damaged buildings before they had been inspected.

About 80,000 schoolchildren lost ten days of classes. Tamara Obeid said soldiers raided her home on 23 October, pointed weapons at her family and arrested her husband at gunpoint, and that her children are now afraid to return. “The children need psychological preparation to be able to bring them home,” she said.

Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the operation after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a Hebron checkpoint on 23 October. Both gunmen were killed. The Israeli military said it confiscated four weapons, demolished the homes of the two attackers and sealed an underground space.

Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, said on 26 October that “collective punishment is a grave violation of international law” and called for displaced residents to be allowed back and paid reparations. Hebron Municipality and displaced residents have challenged the operation in Israel’s Supreme Court, in a petition filed by Adalah on 29 October.