BICOM

Israeli Defence Forces, Border Police and Israeli Police arrested 13 settler activists last night as several settlers attempted to enter Joseph’s Tomb near the West Bank city of Nablus. The activists did not receive approval from the IDF or the Palestinian Authority (PA) to be in the area, and reports say around 40 entered the area near the Balata refugee camp and bypassed police checkpoints by walking through agricultural fields. PA Police were deployed near the Tomb but the Israeli security forces managed to find those that had infiltrated the area by lighting up the surroundings with illumination flares.

The attempt to gain access to Joseph’s Tomb comes a few days after a security incident when Palestinian police shot and killed Ben Yosef Livnat and wounded four other Israelis, who went to pray at the Tomb without security clearance or permission.