Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Dozens of Palestinian youths on Tuesday clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian and Israeli security forces said. The Palestinian sources said that the clashes broke out as more than 2,500 Jewish settlers arrived at the Joseph's Tomb in the eastern part of e city to perform prayers. The sources said that another ten military jeeps arrived earlier and closed the area for fear from clashes with Palestinian youths. The sources said that the youths threw stones at the Israeli soldiers who supervised the visit. The soldiers responded by firing tear gas canisters.
The sources said that at least fifteen Palestinians suffered from gas inhalation during the clashes. They received medical treatment at the site by Palestinian paramedics, the sources said. No injuries on the Israeli side were reported. For his part, the Israeli army spokesman's unit said in a statement that the soldiers used means of crowd control to disperse the protesters. The spokesman added that the settlers left the scene after performing their prayers. The rightist Israeli Channel 7 television said that Israeli soldiers participated in the prayers. The report said that the Israeli army's Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz was among the soldiers praying at the site. The Joseph Tomb was handed over to the PA on October 9, 2000, where the Nablus Municipality renovated the site and recovered the niche (Mihrab of the mosque indicating the Qibla). The tomb is a tiny half-derelict stone compound in the heart of Nablus that many Jews believe is the final burial place of the son of Jacob, the biblical patriarch. Palestinians believe that the compound is actually the tomb of a Muslim sheikh also called Yousef. Since October, 1984, the Israeli settlers started celebrating their festivities inside the tomb. Many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the site in defense and in an attempt to force the settlers out of it. During the second Intifada, groups of the Palestinian activists destroyed parts of the site assuming that the Israeli military turned the site into a military base. Nablus, an area of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, is under the full control of the PA and Israeli civilians and vehicles require a permit from the Israeli army to enter. On April 2011, Palestinian security forces opened fire on three cars full of occupiers who entered the tomb for prayers without permission and then tried to break through a local checkpoint. The 25-year-old Ben-Joseph Livnat was killed and four others suffered light to serious injuries. Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound was closed to Jewish visitors for security considerations. The Israeli Army Radio said that the Jerusalem District Police Commander Yossi Pariente made the decision in an evaluation of the situation held early on the day after the police received intelligence information on plans to cause disturbances upon visitors' arrival at the site. On June, the Jewish Rabbi Yaakov Medan of Har (Mount) Etzion seminary said that the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet supports the visits to the Muslim's third holiest shrine. “The Shin Bet Jewish Division Director told me Jewish presence on the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque complex) is essential for maintaining our sovereignty. “He told me that in order to accommodate this trend he would increase the number of agents and security personnel on the Temple Mount.” Medan told participants in the Begin Center Conference on the complex. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it in 1980, and has since built settlements there that are home to some 300,000 Jewish settlers. Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
