Hebron is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometres south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 metres above sea level. The largest city in the West Bank, and the second largest in the Palestinian territories after Gaza, it has a population of over 215,000 Palestinians, and seven hundred Jewish settlers concentrated on the outskirts of the Old City of Hebron. It includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions all designate as the burial site of three key patriarchal/matriarchal couples. Judaism ranks Hebron the second-holiest city after Jerusalem, while some Muslims regard it as one of the four holy cities.
The city is often described as a "microcosm" of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The Hebron Protocol of 1997 divided the city into two sectors: H1, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and H2, roughly 20% of the city, including 35,000 Palestinians, under Israeli military administration.