JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli Minister of Security, who belongs to the ultra-nationalist movement, ascended to the Al-Aqsa Mosque campus in Jerusalem on Thursday to perform what he described as a “prayer” for the hostages in Gaza, in a new challenge to the rules of one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.
The official Israeli position accepts decades-old rules restricting non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount, the third holiest site in Islam and known as the Temple Mount to Jews, who revere it as the site of two ancient temples.
Under a careful “status quo” arrangement reached decades ago with Islamic authorities, the Al-Aqsa compound is managed by a Jordanian religious institution, and under rules dating back decades, Jews can visit it but may not pray there.
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The post included a picture of Ben Gvir walking in the complex located in an elevated square in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, but no pictures or video clips of him praying appeared.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office immediately issued a statement reaffirming the official Israeli position.
The Palestinian Hamas movement took about 250 hostages in its October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli statistics. In the ensuing war in Gaza, Israeli forces killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave.
Suggestions by Israeli extremist nationalists that Israel would change the rules regarding the practice of religious rituals at Al-Aqsa Mosque have sparked violence with Palestinians in the past.
In August, Ben Gvir repeated his call for Jews to be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, sparking sharp criticism, and he had visited the mosque complex in the past.
Ben Gvir, the head of one of the two national-religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition, has a long record of making inflammatory statements that are appreciated by his supporters but run counter to the government's official line.
In the past, the Israeli police prevented ministers from ascending to the Temple Mount, claiming that this endangered national security. Ben Gvir's ministerial portfolio gives him oversight of the Israeli National Police Force.
