In the early hours of 18 August, heavy gunfire broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces in the east of Nablus.

Palestinians opened heavy fire after the Israeli forces raided Nablus to secure the entrance of Joseph’s Tomb, a holy Islamic shrine, in order for extremist settlers to enter.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), an 18 year old youth was killed, and another 36 were injured during clashes in the vicinity of the tomb.

In addition, 27 civilians suffocated as a result of tear gas attacks.

According to WAFA news agency, Israeli forces stormed Al-Quds street, Amman street, and the vicinity of Joseph’s Tomb, as well as the Askar and Balata refugee camps.

The Jenin Brigades, an armed group affiliated with the Al-Quds Brigades, said it “directly and intensely” targeted Israeli forces in the vicinity of Joseph’s Tomb.

A few hours later, the Israeli army shut down multiple civil society organizations in the West Bank.

Earlier this week, at least 40 Palestinians were detained during a large arrest campaign across the West Bank, as Tel Aviv has intensified its attacks on the occupied territories.

Tensions have been rising in Palestine after the Israeli forces carried out a new massacre in the besieged Gaza Strip last week, killing nearly 50 people, including several senior commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) resistance movement.

Jewish settlers stormed Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus to perform religious rituals, believing that it is the tomb of the Prophet Joseph. However, historical and scientific accounts deny the validity of this, showing that the tomb is no more than 200 years old, and belongs to a Muslim man called Youssef Dweikat.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant faction, like Hamas, but is smaller in size, and was founded in 1982 by Fathi Abd al-Aziz al-Shikaki, a physician from Rafah, Gaza.

According to a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonprofit and non-partisan international policy organization, the PIJ is dedicated to uprooting Israel and establishing an autonomous Islamic Palestinian state in the lands currently comprising Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.