A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after an extremist Israeli minister visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the disputed hilltop compound comes amid a year-and-a-half-long bout of growing Israeli violence against the Palestinians, enflaming already surging tensions.
It also drew condemnation from neighboring Jordan and from Palestinians who view such visits as provocative. The site is revered by Muslims and Jews, and the competing claims lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Early Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said 14-year-old Fares Sharhabil Abu Samra was killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank town of Qalqilya. The Israeli military said Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at troops, who responded by firing into the air. It said the incident was being reviewed.
Ben-Gvir's visit could trigger hundreds of Jews to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Affairs Ministry warned that the government and extremists like Ben-Gvir would "push things toward religious war" by "provoking the feelings of Muslims all over the world."
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it considered Ben-Gvir’s visit to the sacred compound as an attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty over the site.
Jordan, which acts as a custodian over the site and has a peace agreement with Israel, said such visits along with other Israeli steps in Jerusalem "threaten to trigger new cycles of violence."
Ben-Gvir, a former West Bank settler leader and far-right activist who years ago was convicted of incitement and supporting a Jewish terrorist group, now serves as Israel’s national security minister, overseeing the country’s police force.
Thursday was Ben-Gvir's third known visit to the contested site since becoming a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government.
The site is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Jews, however, claim it as the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site where the biblical Temples once stood.
Police said they had arrested or detained 16 people for violating "visitation regulations” at the site. Under longstanding arrangements, Jews are permitted to visit the site but not to pray there.
However, in recent years, a growing number of Jewish visitors have begun to quietly pray, raising fears among Palestinians that Israel is plotting to divide or take over the site. Ben-Gvir has long called for increased Jewish access.
Earlier Wednesday, far-right Jewish settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to an official from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
More than 340 fanatical Jews entered the Haram al-Sharif area under Israeli police protection in the morning.
After the noon prayer, 86 Jewish settlers raided Masjid Al-Aqsa. They performed religious rituals in the courtyard during the raid.
Yehudah Joshua Glick, former Likud Party deputy, attended the raid accompanied by Israeli police.
Israeli fanatic groups called for a raid on Masjid al-Aqsa on the pretext of "the anniversary of the destruction of the temple," which they claimed to have occurred in the past.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
