OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday, a controversial move by the extreme-right politician amid heightened tensions in annexed east Jerusalem.
The move came three days after Ben-Gvir and tens of thousands of Jewish nationalists marched through the Old City and just over a week into a fragile Gaza ceasefire.
“Jerusalem is our soul,” Ben-Gvir wrote on Telegram, alongside a photo of himself at the site in the heart of the Old City.
“The threats of Hamas will not deter us, I went up to the Temple Mount!” he wrote, using the Jewish name for the site.
Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is administered by Jordan. Non-Muslims are permitted to visit the site, but not pray there.
The compound is also the most sacred site for Jews, who pray below it at the Western Wall.
Hamas, the militant group that rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, denounced Ben-Gvir’s last visit to the site in January and again slammed his action on Sunday.
Israel will “bear responsibility for the barbaric incursions of its ministers and herds of settlers”, the group wrote on Telegram.
The move “confirms the depths of danger looming over Al-Aqsa, under this Zionist fascist government and the arrogance of its ministers from the extreme right”, said Hamas.
Israeli police confirmed Ben-Gvir’s visit in a statement, adding that it passed without incident.
Later on Sunday, Israel’s top politicians held a rare cabinet meeting in the tunnels beneath the Western Wall.
Palestinians fear their use as a vast museum threatens the foundations of Al-Aqsa mosque.
“Time and again, my friends and I have been forced to repel international pressure on the part of those who would divide Jerusalem again,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.
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