Violent clashes broke out overnight between the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and Palestinian young men as hundreds of Jewish settlers stormed the eastern area of Nablus city where Joseph’s Tomb is located to perform rituals.
According to local sources several young men suffered injuries when the IOF showered them with tear gas and fired rubber bullets at them.
Local youths for their part blocked roads in the eastern area with burning tires and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers.
The Hebrew media said that 600 settlers including a government minister and several rabbis arrived at Joseph’s Tomb under military protection.
Israeli troops and settlers storm almost every week the eastern area of Nablus to perform rituals at the tomb which they think is 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.
