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More than 2,000 Israelis, led by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, entered the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday to pray on the first anniversary of the shrine’s destruction, an event an official at the Islamic Endowment Fund called “provocative.”
Ben Gvir said Israel “will defeat Hamas” and called for no participation in any negotiations called for by conflict mediators in Doha or Cairo.
The Al-Aqsa mosque is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jews call it the “Temple Mount” and consider it their holiest religious site. Israeli troops control entrances to the site, which is managed by Jordan’s Islamic Endowments Department.
Under the status quo following Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem in 1967, non-Muslims can visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque at certain times without praying, a rule that ultra-Orthodox Jews have increasingly violated.
Palestinians and the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments consider the visit of nationalist Jews to the Al-Aqsa Mosque a provocation to Muslim feelings.
According to the Hebrew calendar, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple is August 9, a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of Solomon’s Temple or the First Temple.
“2,250 extremist Jews performed provocative prayers and dances and raised Israeli flags during the attack,” an official at Jerusalem’s Islamic Endowments Department told AFP.
He noted that “Minister Ben Gvir oversaw the Judaization campaign in his capacity as Minister of National Security and contributed to changing the realities inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque instead of upholding international treaties.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli police had imposed “restrictions” on Palestinian worshippers entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, allowing only “a small number of people in.”
Video footage and photos on social media, including content posted by the Islamic Endowments Department, showed Bin Ghafir walking in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In a video clip posted on his account on the “X” platform, Ben Gvir promised “victory.”
“We have to win this battle, not go to Doha or Cairo for discussions,” he said, referring to a call for talks on August 15.
He added: “We have to defeat Hamas, we have to bring them to their knees.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed in a statement that “there is no special policy for any minister on the Temple Mount, not even the Minister of National Security.”
He added: “What happened this morning on the Temple Mount was an exception to the established situation.”
The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside Israel that left 1,198 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the Israeli army, the attackers took 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still in Gaza, and 39 of whom died.
According to Hamas’s Health Ministry, the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war has reached 39,897.
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