NABLUS, May 11, 2018 (WAFA) – Sixteen Palestinians were injured and scores other suffocated by Israeli forces during clashes in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, said a medical source.

Director of the Red Crescent’s First Aid and Emergency Center in Nablus Ahmad Jibril told WAFA that Israeli forces shot two protestors with live ammunition and 14 others with rubber-coated steel bullets, and caused 45 others to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.

He added that the live ammunition injuries were rushed to a Nablus-based hospital for treatment, while all suffocation cases were treated at the scene.

This came as busloads of hundreds of settlers forced their way into Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, under heavy Israeli military protection, triggering clashes.

Palestinian residents clashed with soldiers and attempted to block settlers’ access to the site, while soldiers opened fire at them.

Settlers repeatedly break into Joseph Tomb, located in a densely Palestinian populated area in Nablus, provoking chaos and confrontation with local residents.

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 believe it to belong to the Biblical Patriarch Joseph.

K.F.