Two Arab youths were shot dead Wednesday morning, the eve of Purim, by the IDF after throwing explosives at soldiers guarding Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem, the IDF Spokesperson reported. No soldiers were hurt.
The two Arabs threw the charges from a passing vehicle, and in response the soldiers opened fire at them and hit their vehicle with an engineering tools.
Joseph’s Tomb is an Israeli controlled enclave within the city of Shechem. Jewish prayer services there are conducted only in coordination with the IDF.
Ma’an cited the PA health ministry’s announcement that the encounter took place on Amman Street. The ministry said the terrorists were Raed Hashim Mohammed Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Imad Mohammed Nuri, 20. The report begins at the point where IDF soldiers opened fire, and the entire segment about how the Arab attackers threw explosives from a moving car at the soldiers.
Ma’an also reports that as a result of the clashes that ensued in the area, 12 civilians were wounded by rubber bullets and one was wounded by shrapnel. Fifteen others were suffocated by inhaling tear gas.
Good to know.
Ma’an presents PA security sources who said “the clashes broke out when about 1,000 settlers stormed the tomb of Yusuf east of Nablus under the protection of Israeli soldiers.” The “settlers” (a term used by Arab media to describe all Israelis) were transported there in twenty buses.
Incidentally, the connection between Joseph and Purim is that both Mordechai of the Megillah and Joseph of the book of Genesis were the children of Rachel.