By Qais Abu Samra
NABLUS, Palestine (AA): A Palestinian was killed, sixty injured, by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to local media.
The official Palestine TV said a man died of his serious injuries from Israeli fire in the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus.
Local residents said clashes erupted when Israeli settlers guarded by army forces stormed Joseph’s tomb in Nablus during which Israeli soldiers used fire and tear gas canisters.
Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers reportedly exchanged fire in the area.
A local Palestinian armed group calling itself the “Balata Brigade” said one of its members was killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers.
Medical sources said the soldiers shot Mahdi Mohammad Hamdallah Hashash, 17, with a live round in the chest.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated dozens of Palestinians on the site, including three who were shot by live fire.
Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Emergency Department at the Nablus office of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said its medics rushed Mohammad to a hospital in the city and provided treatment to three young men who were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets and fifty-seven who suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Joseph’s tomb has long been a flashpoint for violence.
Jews believe the site to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Muslims, however, challenge this claim, saying an Islamic cleric – Sheikh Yussef Dawiqat – was buried at the site two centuries ago.
*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report
Additional report by imemc.org
[Photo: Family members mourn the death of 18-year-old Mosab Nafl, who was shot dead by the Israeli army in Sinjil Village of Ramallah, West Bank on November 05, 2022. Photojournalist :Issam Rimawi/AA]
