Local sources said that IOF troops raided circled the area of the tomb after midnight and snipers took positions on rooftops in preparation for the storming which has become a recurring event by settlers and occupation troops who are trying to establish a permanent presence at the tomb.
Israeli radio said that Ashkenazi was accompanied by the two chiefs rabbis Yona Mtzger (Ashkenazi Rabbi) and Shlomo Amar (Sephardi Rabbi) to inspect the renovation work being carried out on the tomb, indicating intentions to take the tomb over.
This “visit” provokes fear that the situation at the tomb will return to how it was before the start of the Aqsa Intifada in 2000 when settlers visited the tomb regularly and stayed overnight at the site, encouraged by the security provided by Abbas’s militia.
Settler organisations have been calling for this for some time citing that security fears that prevented their return to the site are no longer valid.
Joseph's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר יוסף, Kever Yosef, Arabic: قبر يوسف, Kabr Yûsef) is located at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, some 230 metres (750 ft) north of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus in the Palestinian Authority, near the site of biblical Shechem.
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