Brigadier-General Nitzan Alon, head of the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division, met Tuesday with Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, a major leader in the hareidi-religious world. Alon asked Rabbi Elyashiv for a blessing, and spoke with him about the issue of Jewish worshipers entering Joseph's Tomb (Kever Yosef) without IDF authorization.

Rabbi Elyashiv stated that entering the tomb without coordinating with the IDF is forbidden by Jewish law, “because it leads to lives being endangered, both the worshipers' lives and those of the IDF soldiers.”