LONDON: Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Tuesday stormed Joseph’s Tomb, located east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, in an attempt to assert sovereignty over the site.
Since January, settlers have stormed the site multiple times, performing Jewish prayers under the watch of Israeli forces, some of whom were deployed on the rooftops of several Palestinian homes in the area, according to the Palestine News Agency, also known as Wafa.
Settlers gather at the site at night to pray, which often leads to clashes with Palestinian protesters who view their presence as provocative. Defense Minister Israel Katz issued directives in December allowing more settler visits to the shrine during the day as well as at night.
Palestinians believe the site is the funerary monument of Sheikh Yousef Dweikat, a local religious figure, while Israeli settlers claim it belongs to the Biblical Patriarch Joseph, according to Wafa.
In May, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich led about 5,000 settlers to the site located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. He has called for the annexation of the West Bank and presented plans to expand settlements to block any future Palestinian state.
All settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside about 3 million Palestinians.
