Violent clashes burst out at dawn Tuesday after dozens of Israeli fanatics stormed Joseph’s Tomb in eastern Nablus province.
A PIC news correspondent said dozens of Israeli army jeeps rolled into Nablus’s eastern corners at predawn time paving the way for the mass break-in.
According to eyewitnesses the break-in was carried out at 01 a.m. via the Beit Furik and Al-Ghawi crossroads. Two settler batches stormed the area sparking clashes with the Palestinian protesters.
Palestinian citizen Ahmad Al-Salman said that 700 fanatic settlers crammed into Israeli buses forced their ways into the plaza and environs of the shrine.
The clashes spread out to Balata camp and Amman Street where the occupation troops attacked the Palestinian protesters with heavy barrages of teargas canisters resulting in several suffocation cases.
Palestinian citizen Nidhal Kaabi from Balata camp said civilians could not reach the local mosque adjacent to Balata’s northern entrance to perform dawn prayers due to the presence of Israeli soldiers who withdrew at 5:30 a.m.
Over recent days extremist settler gangs announced their intent to storm Joseph’s Tomb and called for mass participation in the break-in.
In another development the Israeli occupation army seized machinery from a Palestinian workshop in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Earlier the occupation forces claimed responsibility for the confiscation of the equipment of over 120 workshops in the West Bank on claims that they were used to manufacture homemade weapons.
Violent confrontations burst out in the area following the assault.
A few hours earlier the occupation patrols came down heavily on the Palestinians of Zabouba town to the west of Jenin and sealed off the main thoroughfare to the area with a military checkpoint as part of a policy of collective punishment against civilians.
