On Thursday dawn, Israeli soldiers injured at least seventeen Palestinians, including a journalist, in the eastern area of Nablus city, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics provided treatment to seventeen Palestinians.
The PRCS stated that the soldiers shot four Palestinians with rubber-coated steel bullets and caused burns to the arm of another Palestinian.
It added that twelve wounded Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and received the needed treatment at the scene.
The incidents occurred when dozens of soldiers accompanied buses of illegal Israeli colonizers into the Joseph’s Tomb area, east of Nablus, leading to protests.
Palestinian resistance fighters also exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers while withdrawing from Nablus.
Joseph the patriarch is revered by Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Samaritans alike. However, the Israeli military allows Jews to visit as part of organized pilgrimages, despite the site being in Area A, where the PA has full control and prohibits Muslims from worshiping at the site.
The invasions constantly lead to protests, injuries and in several incidents, fatalities among the Palestinains.
Ultra-orthodox and nationalist Jews regularly try to visit the shrine without approval, as many Jews believe the tomb to be the final resting place of the biblical figure in the Old Testament.
Palestinians believe that Joseph’s Tomb is the funerary monument to Sheikh Yousif Dweikat, a local religious figure.
