Israeli rights group B'Tselem has warned that Israeli leaders are planning to forcibly displace Palestinians and carry out extensive destruction in the Hebron area following today’s attack, acts it says would amount to collective punishment and potential war crimes. The group stated this is a further escalation of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and its Elimination Project in the West Bank. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the scene of an earlier fire exchange between armed Palestinians and Israeli forces in Hebron on October 23.