Itamar Ben-Gvir Al-Aqsa visit drew hundreds of Israelis into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday under heavy police protection, according to local authorities, amid tightened access measures during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot in occupied East Jerusalem.
Officials in the Jerusalem governorate said security forces closed intersections and streets around the Old City leading to the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, on the third day of Sukkot.
Authorities reported that groups entered the site in the morning, with participants singing and dancing in the courtyards. Approximately 900 people were recorded entering during the early hours.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared, “We are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa and in the prisons, and we have turned the lives of terrorist prisoners into hell.” He added that the “people of Israel are on the path to absolute victory,” and described Al-Aqsa as “the most important place for the Jewish people.”
The visit took place as Israeli authorities ordered dozens of Palestinian shopkeepers to shutter businesses and instructed residents to stay inside homes in areas near the mosque to facilitate Jewish prayers during Sukkot.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement that “dozens of Palestinian owners of shops, cafes and restaurants in the Cotton Merchants Market in Jerusalem’s Old City were forced to close them during the Jewish Sukkot holiday to make way for Jewish prayers in the market.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir Al-Aqsa reaction
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the incursion “playing with fire and a dangerous provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world,” and warned that Israel was seeking to ignite a “religious war” in the region.
Since 2003, Israeli police have permitted groups of Israelis to make daily visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, except on Fridays and Saturdays. Israeli authorities frequently impose restrictions on Palestinian worshippers.
This year, they prevented Eid al-Fitr prayers at Al-Aqsa and allowed only 10,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, home to 3.3 million people, to attend the first Friday prayers of Ramadan. Similar tensions have been documented in other regional flashpoints, including during calls for Yemen general mobilization by the presidential council chief.