Colonists assault Palestinian near Nablus

NABLUS: Israeli colonists early Monday assaulted a Palestinian citizen, beating him and spraying him with pepper gas as they stormed the eastern area of the city of Nablus. Security sources told WAFA that colonists stormed the eastern area of the city and tried to enter Joseph's Tomb, then stormed Qadri Tuqan School in the area and destroyed one of its gates. The sources added that the colonists fled towards the road linking the town of Al-Badhan and Nablus, and severely beat a citizen and sprayed him with pepper gas. The site of Joseph's Tomb is contentious. Palestinians believe the site to be the funerary monument to Sheikh Yousef Dweikat, a local religious figure, while Israeli settlers allege it to belong to the Biblical Patriarch Joseph. Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name 'Judea and Samaria' to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy. There are over 800,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law. Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA