Palestinian media and security officials are reporting that IDF soldiers on Thursday shot two Arab terrorists taking part in attacks against Jewish visitors to Joseph's Tomb at Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria.
The IDF allows Jews to visit the tomb of the Biblical figure only once a month for Rosh Chodesh, the new month festival, out of security concerns in the hostile city. The entrance of Jews on buses in the dead of night evidently turned into a target for Arab rioters in the pre-dawn nighttime hours of Thursday morning.
The Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency identified the two terrorists as 23-year-old Iyad Muin Mohammed Kalbuna, who was shot in his left foot, and 24-year-old Mohammed Ghassan Hammad Hashash of the Balata "refugee camp" who was shot in the thigh.
Both terrorists were taken to Rafidia Hospital for treatment, it said.
The IDF has not confirmed or denied the incident, however.
The Arab site did not detail how the Arab rioters were attacking the Jewish visitors, although firebombs and rocks have been used at the Tomb in the past against Jews, as riots have become an all too frequent occurrence.
According to the 1993 Oslo Accords, Joseph's Tomb was supposed to remain under full Israeli control.
But in 2000 amid the Second Intifada terror war, hoards of rioters invaded the tomb - which housed a synagogue and a yeshiva - ransacked it and burned it to the ground, while parading Jewish holy books and desecrating them. Local Muslims later declared the site as a mosque, as the IDF reduced the Jewish presence to a once-monthly visit.
Under previous agreements with Israel, the PA is required to protect Jewish holy sites under its control, and to allow secure access for Jewish worshippers.
However, in 2011 Yosef Livnat was murdered at Kever Yosef by none other than PA policemen as he visited the holy site with fellow yeshiva students. Livnat was the nephew of former Minister Limor Livnat (Likud).