He accused Ben-Gvir of staging the visit as part of a bid to turn the shrine “into a Jewish temple”. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on Palestinians to “confront the raids into Al Aqsa mosque”. However, the Palestinian foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir and views it as unprecedented provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict”. The visit appears to have been calculated to avoid a direct confrontation with Palestinians, having come early in the morning, and a day after Ben-Gvir had appeared to backtrack from his plans, thereby avoiding a gathering of Palestinians at the site. Ofir Gendelman, who has long served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesman, released a video saying that the “situation is completely calm” at the holy site following Ben-Gvir’s departure. Leading rabbis forbid Jews from praying at the site.īen-Gvir wrote on Twitter after his visit that the site “is open to all and if Hamas thinks that if it threatens me it will deter me, they should understand that times have changed”. The Israeli far-right leader has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site, which is viewed by Palestinians as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel taking complete control over the compound. Tuesday’s visit by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir risks stoking tensions with Palestinians, with the Hamas group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip warning that such a move would cross a “red line”.īen-Gvir, who was seen at Islam’s third holiest site under heavy security, said: “Our government will not surrender to the threats of Hamas.” Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have joined Palestinians in condemning a far-right Israeli minister’s brief visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, with the Palestinian leadership calling the intrusion “an unprecedented provocation”.
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