JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli troops arrested three Palestinian Authority security officers for their involvement in the death of an Israeli man during a visit to Joseph’s Tomb.
The officers arrested on Tuesday night had been released recently after serving a year in Palestinian prison for their involvement in the April 2011 killing of Ben-Joseph Livnat, 25, a father of four from Jerusalem. The P.A. had refused to turn them over to Israel.
Livnat, the nephew of Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, had entered the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank to visit Joseph’s Tomb. He and other worshipers did not coordinate their visit with the Israeli army, which coordinates monthly prayer visits to the site.
The tomb is believed to be the burial site of the biblical patriarch Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Members of the Breslov sect frequently sneak in to the tomb to pray without coordinating their visits, according to reports.
