IDF commander, civilians wounded in Joseph’s Tomb attack

Armed terrorists targeted Jewish worshippers at shrine with “massive gunfire”.

By World Israel News Staff

The commander of the Israeli army’s Samaria Territorial Brigade and two Jewish civilian worshippers were wounded by Palestinian terrorists as they opened fire during clashes at Joseph’s Tomb, near Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria.

Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims had gathered at the tomb late Wednesday evening, accompanied by IDF forces.

Social media footage from the scene shows a chaotic scene as Jews attempt to run from one side of the compound’s courtyard to the other, as non-stop gunfire is heard in the background.

In a statement, the army said that armed terrorists had targeted worshippers at the shrine with “massive gunfire” and that troops had “returned fire toward the source of the shooting.”

One of the three Israelis wounded was Com. Roy Zweig, who Hebrew language media reports indicated was wounded by shrapnel.

The names of the two civilians wounded in the incident were not made public.

The army did not update on the condition of any of the injured men, nor did it reveal to which hospitals they were admitted.

The site has been the site of numerous attacks perpetrated by Palestinians on Israeli Jews who come to pray at the tomb.

In April 2022, some 100 Palestinian rioters desecrated Joseph’s Tomb, in what reports suggested was an act of retaliation for the IDF’s anti-terror operations in Jenin.

The next day, two Jewish men were shot while en route to the site. The men survived, but the perpetrators were not apprehended.

Shortly after the two men were shot, scores of Arab youth broke into the Biblical figure’s resting place, setting fires and vandalizing the holy site for the second time in as many days.

Although Palestinian leaders claim that Joseph’s Tomb is an Islamic holy site and say that their opposition of Jews praying there is rooted in an effort to resist “Judaization” of the compound, locals have repeatedly vandalized the site.