Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits Al Aqsa Mosque compound on 'Jerusalem Day'
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday visited the Al Aqsa Mosque compound as Israel held its annual celebrations marking the capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Mr Ben-Gvir's visit to the site came amid an escalation in Israel's war against Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, where nearly 54,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since October 2023. Claiming he was at the site to mark Jerusalem Day, Mr Ben Gvir said he "prayed for victory in the war, for the return of all our captives and for the success of the newly appointed Shin Bet chief, Maj Gen David Zini". His words came in a post on X, accompanied by a video of himself with Al Aqsa Mosque in the background. "Happy Jerusalem Day!" he added. Photos circulated on Palestinian social media channels showed a smiling Mr Ben-Gvir flanked by religious Jewish families, with some people draped in Israel flags, and a large security detail. Any Israeli political or non-Muslim religious practice at Al Aqsa Mosque compound is deeply inflammatory for Muslims, who consider the site the third holiest in Islam. The Department of Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem said 1,427 Israeli settlers stormed Al Aqsa in the morning in groups, under the protection and escort of national police, with more expected in the afternoon. Extremist Israelis attacked Palestinian residents, activists and journalists at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City ahead of the provocative flag march through the Muslim Quarter for Jerusalem Day. The National saw elderly women being pushed over, men being hit as they protected women and children, racist graffiti being scrawled on shops and pictures of Al Aqsa Mosque being torn down. There were chants of 'death to Mohammed'. The area inside Damascus Gate, the busiest commercial area in the Old City, was entirely closed down. Businesses there have been targeted in previous years. Jordan, the custodian of Al Aqsa Mosque compound, condemned Mr Ben-Gvir's visit. "The practices of this extremist minister and his continued incursions into the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque ... do not negate the fact that East Jerusalem is an occupied city over which Israel has no sovereignty," the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said. The complex is administered by an Islamic trust funded and controlled by Jordan in a security arrangement with Israel after the two nation signed the peace treaty in 1994. Under the arrangement, Jews are not allowed to pray in the compound but can do so at the nearby Western Wall. Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza with an attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage, condemned the move, calling it "a blatant violation of the sanctity and status of Al Aqsa Mosque in the eyes of the entire Islamic nation". It also "represents a desperate attempt by the occupation to implement the complete Judaisation of the mosque", Hamas said.
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