MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / July 20, 2023
Bader al-Masri, 19, shot dead and others wounded by Israeli troops near Joseph’s Tomb in occupied West Bank city.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian and wounded three others in Nablus on Thursday morning, shortly after settlers stormed Joseph’s Tomb in the occupied West Bank city.
“A citizen was killed by the [Israeli] occupation bullets in Nablus,” the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement, adding that three others were taken to hospital after being wounded by live bullets.
Two of those wounded were in a critical condition, according to WAFA news agency.
The health ministry confirmed that Bader al-Masri, 19, succumbed to his wounds.
Israeli forces entered eastern parts of the city in the early hours of Thursday morning after confrontations broke out when Israeli settlers stormed the religious site.
The Israeli army said its forces “operated to secure the coordinated entrance of Israeli civilians to Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus”.
The shrine has long been a flashpoint due to regular tours by army-protected settlers, which Palestinian residents contest.
Troops target ambulance
Israeli forces targeted an ambulance with rubber-coated metal bullets while it was transporting a patient near Balata refugee camp in Nablus on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Ahmed Jibril, director of the Red Crescent’s ambulance and emergency centre in Nablus, told WAFA that Israeli troops also prevented its emergency workers from reaching a 12-day-old infant who had suffered from gas inhalation.
Palestinians and Israelis lay claim to counter-narratives about the religious and national significance of Joseph’s Tomb. Palestinians believe it is the burial site of a cleric who lived in the nearby Balata neighbourhood in the early 1900s.
Israelis say the shrine contains the tomb of the Prophet Joseph, a figure revered in both Islamic and Jewish traditions.
The most violent confrontations near the tomb took place during the popular uprising of 1996 and the Second Intifada between 2000-2005. Armed clashes took place in the area, which led to the death of both Palestinians and Israelis.
According to a Middle East Eye tally, 195 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, including 33 children – at a rate of more than one fatality per day.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis in the same period, including six children.
