Violent clashes broke out at dawn Wednesday between Palestinian young men and Israeli soldiers in Nablus city after hundreds of Jewish settlers stormed the area of Joseph’s Tomb to perform rituals.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that a large number of Israeli troops entered the eastern district of Nablus aboard military vehicles and on foot before midnight on Tuesday to secure its streets for the arrival of settlers.
However dozens of local young men were able to close roads leading to Joseph’s Tomb with burning tires and hurl stones at soldiers who spread through different streets and at junctions.
Eyewitnesses said that skirmishes took place on the streets of Amman and al-Quds and at the entrance of Balata refugee camp where soldiers fired live ammunition and tear gas and stun grenades at the young men to disperse them.
Consequently scores of young men suffered from their exposure to tear gas fumes.
Israeli troops and settlers storm every week the eastern area of Nablus to perform rituals at the tomb which they claim to be the resting-place of the biblical patriarch Joseph while locals and Palestinian historians affirm that the grave belongs to a local medieval Muslim Sheikh called Yousef al-Duwaik.
