JERUSALEM (JTA) — Joseph’s Tomb was vandalized with swastikas and other graffiti.
Israeli soldiers discovered the damage early Thursday morning, shortly before more than 1,000 Jewish worshipers came to pray at the tomb located near Nablus in the West Bank. The pilgrimage ahead of Yom Kippur was coordinated in advance with the Israeli army.
The soldiers covered the graffiti with white paint before the arrival of the worshipers, Haaretz reported.
Joseph’s Tomb is a site considered holy to Jews. The biblical patriarch Joseph, as well as his sons Ephraim and Menashe, is believed to be buried there.
The army has coordinated monthly early-morning visits to the tomb for Jewish worshipers since 2009. It has been vandalized several times in the past decade.
The vandalism comes days after a mosque in northern Israel was destroyed in an arson attack, allegedly by extremist Jews.
