The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has called an emergency demonstration outside Downing Street on Monday, 26 October, following the demolition of Palestinian homes and businesses in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, which has forcibly displaced around 2,500 Palestinians, according to Palestinian rights monitors.
The protest, scheduled for 6pm, comes after Israeli forces began demolishing buildings in Hebron’s Ein Deir Baha neighbourhood and surrounding areas on Friday. The operation followed an attack on an Israeli military checkpoint that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three others.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently vowed to destroy the neighbourhood from which the Palestinian attackers allegedly came, declaring: “First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely.”
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, around 500 families, approximately 2,500 people, have been forced from their homes across an area spanning 35 hectares. Homes, shops and industrial facilities have been demolished, while Israeli forces have sealed off parts of the city, restricted movement and carried out raids and arrests. One three-storey home was reportedly demolished despite its owner having obtained an interim court order.
The escalation has drawn comparisons with Israel’s 2025 military operations in refugee camps across the northern West Bank, which forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the “Jenin refugee camp model arrives in Hebron”, while far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a military campaign “exactly like in Gaza or Lebanon”.
The emergency protest comes as the UK government faces renewed pressure to move beyond statements condemning Israeli settlement expansion and violence. In September, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced plans for a new sanctions regime targeting illegal settlements, including a proposed ban on imports of settlement goods, restrictions on advertising settlements in the UK, and sanctions against individuals and companies facilitating settlement expansion.
However, the government has said the new regime will take six to nine months to implement. As of 1 October, the proposed import and advertising bans had not yet been brought into force. The government has also announced further sanctions against individuals accused of supporting or inciting settler violence, bringing the total number of sanctioned individuals to 38.
Monday’s demonstration will demand urgent action from the British government in response to the latest demolitions and the escalating assault on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.
