Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Israel Secures Daylight Prayers at Joseph’s Tomb as West Bank Raids Sweep Towns

Political orders expanded visiting hours in a move settler leaders cast as advancing Israeli control.

Overview

  • Around 1,500 Jewish worshippers held the morning Shacharit service at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, the first daylight prayers at the site in about 25 years under heavy military escort.
  • Participants included Knesset members and settler leaders, and the army said the operation followed directives from the political echelon to extend visiting hours.
  • Local footage and reports said troops expelled journalists, cleared nearby homes, and blocked medical teams around the site during the operation.
  • Concurrently, Israeli forces raided multiple West Bank towns, detaining people, searching homes, demolishing a factory in Sebastia, and seizing a five‑storey building in Hebron, in a pattern the UN reports has intensified since 2023.
  • Israeli forces shot dead Qusay Halaika near Bethlehem in a disputed incident, and troops ended a two‑day siege of Hizma after mass interrogations, detentions, and the seizure of dozens of vehicles.