Thousands of Jewish worshipers entered Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus (Shechem) overnight and into Wednesday morning as Israeli officials and Judea and Samaria community leaders renewed calls for a permanent Jewish presence at the site in northern Samaria.

The visit marked the first large-scale daytime entry by organized buses since the 2000-05 Second Intifada, following authorization by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.

According to organizers, approximately 5,000 people visited the site overnight. Hundreds remained for morning prayers held Wednesday at the tomb complex, traditionally identified as the burial place of the biblical Joseph, son of the biblical patriarch Jacob.

Among those attending were Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, Religious Zionism Knesset member Zvi Sukkot, rabbis affiliated with the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah and students from several Judea and Samaria yeshivas.

“Our presence here at Joseph’s Tomb, in broad daylight, is a clear statement: the people of Israel are returning home to all parts of their land,” Smotrich said during the visit.

“Joseph’s Tomb is living testimony to the inseparable bond between the people of Israel and their land,” he added. “We are working and will continue to work so that the Jewish presence here becomes permanent.”

For years, coordinated visits to the site had taken place almost exclusively at night, under heavy military escort. In January, Jewish worshipers held a more limited daylight prayer service at the tomb, the first in 25 years.

Dagan called Wednesday’s prayers “a historic morning.”

“Our goal is clear—the full and permanent return of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah to its natural place, and for the Israeli flag to fly over Joseph’s Tomb,” he said.

Sukkot, who heads the Knesset lobby for Joseph’s Tomb, held a halaka (upsherin) ceremony for his son, marking a boy’s first haircut at the age of three.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah, expressed hope that worshipers would soon “return and be permanently at Joseph’s Tomb.”

Nablus is located in Area A under the administrative and security jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. However, under the Oslo Accords, Israeli forces were allowed to remain at the holy site.

In 2000, Israel abandoned the grave after Palestinian rioters stormed the compound. A Border Police officer later died after being shot during the clashes when rescue forces were unable to reach him. The tomb has been desecrated and refurbished several times, most recently in 2022.

The renewed daytime prayers are part of what organizers described as a broader campaign to restore a continuous Jewish presence at the site and eventually return the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah to the compound.

The yeshivah operated at the site until its evacuation during the outbreak of Palestinian violence in 2000.

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