TNA Staff
The New Arab / January 24, 2026
Israeli restrictions on southern Hebron/Al-Khalil have paralysed its main industrial zone, causing heavy losses for farms and factories locally.
Israeli restrictions imposed on southern Hebron have triggered a worsening economic crisis, with industrial activity largely paralysed and daily losses estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels, according to farmers and business representatives.
Six days after Israeli forces sealed off the southern area of the city in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian traders and factory owners say one of Hebron’s most important economic zones has ground to a near standstill.
The closed area includes the city’s main industrial cluster, comprising factories, companies, quarries and farms that together form a central pillar of the local economy.
The closure follows a wide-scale military operation launched on 19 January, which Israeli forces have justified as part of efforts to “eliminate terrorism”. However, field data cited by The New Arab’s sister outlet Al-Araby al-Jadeed indicate that much of the targeted area is predominantly industrial.
In recent days, Israeli forces have tightened restrictions by installing two iron gates and closing access points linking the industrial zone to a bypass road, effectively isolating the area and halting economic movement.
Among the sectors most severely affected are cattle farms, which rely on daily production and distribution cycles. Farmer Ibrahim al-Turk told Al-Araby al-Jadeed that the southern area includes around ten large farms housing more than 1,400 head of cattle.
Al-Turk said farmers are suffering mounting losses as tens of tonnes of milk are destroyed each day because factories and transport trucks are prevented from reaching the farms. He warned that dozens of cows are now at risk of dying due to acute shortages of fodder and the difficulty of bringing supplies into the area, compounded by cold winter weather.
According to al-Turk, the farms previously supplied about 70 tonnes of milk per day across Hebron governorate, but these quantities are now being entirely wasted due to the closure. He estimated losses at more than 200,000 shekels ($63,500) per day from milk alone, excluding other operating costs.
“The damage is not limited to farm owners,” al-Turk said, noting that hundreds of daily-wage workers depend on the sector as their primary source of income. He warned that continued closure would lead to losses amounting to millions of shekels in the coming days and called, at a minimum, for urgent permission to allow fodder into the area to prevent what he described as an imminent agricultural and economic catastrophe.
The head of the Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abed Idris, said efforts have been underway since Thursday to coordinate with Palestinian civil affairs officials to secure Israeli approval for the entry of fodder and livestock.
“These are a fundamental part of the supply chain and a vital component of the local economy,” Idris told Al-Araby al-Jadeed, warning that disruption threatens entire productive sectors and deepens the economic crisis across the governorate.
Idris said the besieged industrial zone and the Jabal Jawhar area are among Hebron’s most important industrial centres, noting that many stone-cutting workshops have been forcibly shut down despite their central role in the city’s economy. Dozens of major factories and companies in southern Hebron are now closed, he said.
Idris rejected Israeli claims that the operation targets weapons, describing the justification as “inaccurate”. He said the real objective is to “create an environment that pushes residents away, drive them toward displacement, and increase pressure on the Palestinian economy”, particularly given Hebron’s status as the largest economic governorate in the West Bank.
He added that the southern area previously injected hundreds of thousands of shekels daily into the local market, a flow that has now stopped entirely, warning that prolonged restrictions risk deepening unemployment and economic contraction across the city.
