Israeli troops have levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron, driving out hundreds of families in collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said.

Axar.az reports, citing The Guardian, that the Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of entry.

The large-scale demolitions follow an attack on Friday on an Israeli military checkpoint outside Hebron by two gunmen. After a 20-minute gunfight, two Israeli soldiers were killed, three injured and the two gunmen were also killed.

Israeli elections will take place in four days and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the extreme-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, travelled to the site of the attack to promise an immediate and ferocious response.

Netanyahu said Israel would “act to destroy this place”. Smotrich who is standing for election in a smaller coalition party, had himself filmed wearing body armour in front of a Palestinian building being demolished. He said he had ordered “the immediate demolition of a wide row of illegal Arab structures adjacent to the attack site”.

Smotrich also called for “a comprehensive military campaign … exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon”. Ein Deir Baha, the focus of the demolitions, was alleged to be the home district of the two gunmen.

A spokesperson for the Hebron municipality said that about 300 families had been evicted. Some had taken refuge in the homes of friends and relatives, while the municipality said it had opened community halls and children’s play areas to shelter others.