NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Over 500 settlers visited Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on Wednesday evening accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

Locals told Ma'an that a number of military vehicles arrived in the area at 11 p.m. and set up positions to allow the settlers to enter the tomb to perform religious rituals.

The settlers and soldiers left early Thursday morning, with no reported incidences.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, the site was to remain under Israeli control. But the Israeli army evacuated the premises in October 2000 shortly after the start of the second intifada, or uprising, and it was immediately destroyed and burnt by the Palestinians.

The restoration of the tomb was completed recently, and following improved security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, the army allows Jewish worshipers to make monthly nocturnal pilgrimages to the site.