Dozens of Palestinians, including children, wounded in settler attack in Nablus

Scores of Palestinians and three Israelis were wounded after Israeli settlers stormed a shrine in the occupied West Bank overnight Wednesday.

The Israeli army on Wednesday evening escorted hundreds of Israeli settlers to Joseph's Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus, which led to violent confrontations with local Palestinian residents.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 64 injured Palestinians, most of them suffering from the effects of tear gas inhalation.

The director of ambulances and emergency services at the Red Crescent in Nablus, Ahmed Jibril told The New Arab's Arabic-language service that his team dealt with various injuries.

He said that a young Palestinian man was taken to the Rafida Hospital to be treated for injuries caused by live bullets and added that other people had been shot with rubber-coated metal bullets, or were treated for burns and injuries caused by falls.

Jibril said that around 40 people, including four children and a baby, were suffocated by tear gas and also taken to the Rafida Hospital.

BREAKING: Israeli occupation forces intensively fire teargas canisters at Palestinians during a military raid into the vicinity of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus pic.twitter.com/0y84CBXwep

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) June 29, 2022

The commander of the Israeli army's Shomron Brigade and two other Israelis were injured, a statement from the army said.

The tomb, which is believed by some to be the last resting place of the biblical patriarch and Islamic prophet Joseph, is revered as a holy site by Muslims and Jews.

The Israeli army provides security for monthly pilgrimages by Israelis, which Palestinians decry as a breach of their security, sovereignty, and safety.

In May, a 16-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by occupying Israeli soldiers near the tomb.

The army said it had arrested 12 people in separate operations across the West Bank on Wednesday night, in the latest raids in a deadly ongoing crackdown.

Forty-eight Palestinians have been killed, mostly in the West Bank since late March - among them non-combatants, including Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by Israeli army fire while covering a raid in Jenin.

Nineteen people have been killed inside Israel, mainly in attacks by Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and within the 1948 territories.

Agencies contributed to this report