JERUSALEM: Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of Jews into Al Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday, breaching the site’s decades-old status quo.

The visit coincided with Tisha B’Av, a Jewish fasting day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

A footage showed Ben Gvir and hundreds of fellow worshippers at the Al Aqsa compound, including Jewish settlers who lined up from the early morning hours to enter the site, where many performed prayers.

Access to the site is governed by a decades-old “status quo” arrangement between Israel and Jordan, whose religious foundation administers the place. Under that arrangement, Jews may visit but are not permitted to pray there, while Muslim worship is meant to continue uninterrupted.

Two killed after stabbing attacks in West Bank

In recent years, however, Ben Gvir and other Jewish visitors have repeatedly tested and breached those limits, including through open prayer at the compound, drawing condemnation from Jordan, the Ramallah-based Palesti­nian Authority and Muslim religious bodies.

Jordan denounced Ben Gvir’s latest visit to the compound. “Jordan firmly rejects and strongly condemns the continued incursions by Israeli officials, Knesset members and extremist settlers into Al Aqsa mosque, as well as the role of Israeli police in facilitating these actions,” foreign ministry spokesperson Fouad Al Majali said in a statement.

He described the actions as “unacceptable attempts to impose new realities at Al Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif through efforts to alter its existing arrangements”.

“We remind the international community that it is a shared responsibility to prevent the Netanyahu government’s provocative actions and attempts to create faits accomplis, which violate the historical and legal status of holy sites in Jerusalem, particularly Al Aqsa Mosque, which belongs exclusively to Muslims,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.

The Israeli government has publicly maintained that its policy on the status quo remains unchan­ged, even as incidents like Thursday’s continue to inflame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since taking office, Ben Gvir has stormed the site more than a dozen times, and has previously used Tisha B’av gatherings to call for tougher action against Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Stabbing attacks

Two Palestinians were killed on Thursday after two stabbing attacks in the north of the occupied West Bank, one near an Israeli settlement and another near an army base.

Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has surged since the start of the Gaza conflict in Oct 2023.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2026