RAMALLAH (Dispatches) -- Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint at the northern entrance of Hebron (Al-Khalil) on Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding several others before being martyred. 
The attack prompted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order preparations for a full lockdown across the occupied West Bank.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a coalition of Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups, praised the operation in a statement issued Friday, describing it as a direct response to “the horrendous crimes committed by Israeli authorities, the Israeli military, and extremist Jewish settlers” across the occupied Palestinian territories. 
The group said the attack dealt a heavy blow to Israel’s security, military and intelligence apparatus, and stressed that Israel’s ongoing crimes would neither ensure the security of the occupying entity nor break the will of the Palestinian people. 
Hamas called the shooting “heroic” but did not claim responsibility.
Israeli media identified the slain soldiers as a staff Sergeant and sergeant, one of them reportedly a squad commander.
The Israeli army said the two Palestinians in the incident were planning a larger attack against settlers on Route 35 but, unable to reach the highway, opened fire on the temporary checkpoint instead. 
They were named as Muhammad Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, 27-year-old residents of Al-Khalil. Palestinian media identified them as Hamouda and Ahmad al-Jaaba. Their exact relationship remained unclear.
The men arrived by car at around 7:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT), got out on a side street armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, and opened fire using buildings as cover. Footage showed a gunfight lasting more than 20 minutes.
Following the attack, Netanyahu held a situation assessment with security chiefs, including army chief of staff Eyal Zamir, war minister Israel Katz, Shin Bet director David Zini and central command head Avi Bluth, and ordered preparations for a complete West Bank lockdown. 
Before that order, Zamir had already imposed a full cordon around Al-Khalil and surrounding villages, with troops sealing entrances with iron gates and cutting off towns with earth mounds and checkpoints, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.
Israeli forces raided the homes of the two men, their relatives and neighbors, arresting several residents and seizing surveillance footage. Shin Bet and Military Intelligence are investigating whether they belonged to a resistance group.
A United Nations report published in July said more than 900 Palestinians had been injured in Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, while 76 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, or died of their injuries, over the same period.