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Israeli Security Disarms Cell Phone Bomb at Joseph's Tomb

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel Police joined forces with IDF soldiers and Border Police on Monday to protect about 1,000 Jewish visitors to Joseph's Tomb, located in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Nablus (biblical Shechem).

During Monday night's visit to the site, security personnel discovered an explosive device wired for remote detonation just outside the tomb, which was later neutralized in a controlled explosion.

Like many sites testifying to Israel's historical roots in the land, the biblical prophet's tomb (another is Rachel's Tomb outside Bethlehem) has been a bone of contention for years. Palestinian rioters shot at Jewish worshippers at the tomb in 2013 and set fire to it in 2015.

Joseph died in Egypt more than 3,500 years ago after rising to the second highest position in the land. His dying admonition to his brothers was to return his bones to the land of Israel. "Then Joseph made Israel's sons swear an oath saying, 'When God takes notice of you, you will bring my bones up from here.'" ( )

The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority dismiss any Jewish connection to the sites, claiming them instead as Islamic.

Meanwhile, Israeli security continues its mission to protect citizens from potential danger, track down would-be attackers and confiscate illegal weapons.

Nablus residents pelted officers with rocks as they entered and left the site, Arutz7 reported. Security forces detained one of them.  

Each time local Arabs have desecrated Joseph's Tomb, determined Israelis clean it up and repair the damage. It's happened many times over the years.

Elsewhere in Israel, police arrested four suspects who took part in recent riots in Kalkiliya, another P.A. city in Samaria.

Near Ma'ale Adumim, an Israeli city just outside Jerusalem, officers questioned a driver and two passengers in a license-less car, confiscating a Carl Gustav (a "homemade" automatic rifle), magazine clips and ammunition.

In an IDF operation near Rahat, soldiers uncovered a Carl Gustav, three handguns, ammunition and clips under a child's bed. Four suspects were taken in for questioning.

And a Binyamin Regional Brigade unit operating in the Arab village of Silwad, less than 8 miles northeast of Ramallah, confiscated two weapons.

In total, Israeli security forces detained 11 Arabs throughout Judea and Samaria suspected of taking part in violent demonstrations and riots.

 

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.