Israel\u2019s far-right minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined thousands of Jewish extremists who stormed Jerusalem\u2019s most sensitive holy site on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Escorted by armed police, they prayed, waved the Israeli flag and sang the national anthem in a provocative display of political power.<\/p>\n
Under a fragile, decades-old agreement known as the status quo, non-Muslim prayer is banned at the site, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.<\/p>\n
Ben-Gvir has eroded the agreement in recent years through a series of inflammatory visits to the compound<\/a>, and unilateral changes to rules for Jewish visitors, including allowing them to bring prayers and printed religious material to the site.<\/p>\n He installed an ideological ally as the head of the Jerusalem police force in January, smoothing the path to greater changes.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Palestinian ministry of religious endowments and affairs said: \u201cThese provocative practices, emanating from the highest political levels of the occupying government, seek to ignite a religious war throughout the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n Israelis prayed on Thursday in parts of the compound close to al-Aqsa mosque and the seventh-century Dome of the Rock shrine.<\/p>\n Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi joined a group that raised Israeli flags and sang the national anthem, Haaretz reported, citing Israeli \u201cTemple Mount\u201d activists pushing for Jewish worship at the site.<\/p>\n In a social media post, Ben-Gvir wrote \u201cwe see enormous progress here\u201d, and Jews praying there \u201cfeel like the owners\u201d.<\/p>\n He has previously said he wanted to raise the Israeli flag at the compound and build a synagogue there.<\/p>\n Thursday is the Jewish holy day of Tisha B\u2019Av, marking the destruction at the same site of the 10th-century BC first temple and the second temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD70.<\/p>\n Map of Old City showing al-Aqsa mosque<\/a><\/p>\n Changes in the status quo agreement have historically driven conflict in Jerusalem and Palestine, with repercussions across the world. A visit in 2000 by the then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon,<\/a> ignited the second Palestinian intifada, which lasted five years, and Hamas gave the name \u201cal-Aqsa flood<\/a>\u201d to its attack on Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the Gaza war, claiming it was provoked by Israeli violations at the Jerusalem mosque.<\/p>\n The prayers outside al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are a \u201cdangerous provocation\u201d by extremists seeking to ignite a religious war, the Israeli activist group Peace Now said in a post on X. \u201cThis directly violates the fragile status quo, which bars non-Muslim prayer at the holy site.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jordanian foreign ministry strongly condemned the storming and called on the international community \u201cto take a firm stance obliging Israel, as the occupying power, to halt its ongoing violations against the Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem\u201d.<\/p>\n The Islamic Waqf Department, which officially manages the compound, said 3,228 Israelis entered the compound during the morning period, Al Jazeera reported. Thousands more are expected in the afternoon<\/p>\n