Visiting hours said extended for Israelis at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
Jewish visitors to Joseph’s Tomb, a shrine located in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, will soon be able to extend their overnight visits to 8 a.m., allowing them to hold morning prayers at the site, according to Hebrew media reports on Monday.
The tomb, said to be the resting place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, is located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under full Palestinian Authority control. The site has repeatedly been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence, including clashes at the onset of the Second Intifada in October 2000 that killed a Border Police officer.
Israelis are prohibited from entering Area A, and at present, groups of Israelis are allowed to access the tomb only via prearranged visits under military guard. Those visits, coordinated by the Samaria Regional Council, generally take place late at night, with the groups mandated to leave at 4 a.m.
A group of Israelis who visited earlier this year without prior coordination reportedly clashed with local Palestinians, and some of........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Waka Ikeda
Grant Arthur Gochin
Tarik Cyril Amar