Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday with a group of illegal settlers, escalating tensions and drawing condemnation amid the ongoing war on Gaza.
Notorious for his radical stance, Ben-Gvir entered the flashpoint site under heavy police protection and toured the mosque's courtyard a few days ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday on April 12-20, an official with the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem told the Anadolu Agency (AA).
The extremist minister was accompanied by over 24 illegal settlers during his tour, he added.
The intrusion was the sixth by the far-right minister into the Al-Aqsa complex since he joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in 2022.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli authorities have imposed strict measures limiting Palestinians' access from the occupied West Bank to East Jerusalem.
Palestinians consider these restrictions as part of Israel's broader efforts to Judaize East Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.
Since 2003, Israel has allowed illegal settlers into the flashpoint compound on an almost daily basis with the exception of Fridays and Saturdays.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
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.
Jordan, the custodian of the site, condemned Wednesday's visit as a "storming" and "an unacceptable provocation" in a foreign ministry statement.
Hamas called it a "provocative and dangerous escalation," saying the visit was "part of the ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people."
"We call on our Palestinian people and our youth in the West Bank to escalate their confrontation... in defense of our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Saudi foreign ministry expressed in a statement its "strongest condemnation" of the "storming" of the compound by Ben-Gvir.
Egypt also expressed "its total condemnation and denunciation" of Ben-Gvir's "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli police."
The site is administered by Jordan under the status quo, while access to it is controlled by Israeli security forces.
Influential ultra-Orthodox politician Moshe Gafni, a member of the government majority, criticised Ben-Gvir's visit on Wednesday as a "violation of the sanctity of the holiest place for the Jewish people."
"It does not demonstrate sovereignty; on the contrary, it constitutes a desecration of the holy place and provokes unnecessary incitement in the Muslim world and beyond," he wrote on X.
Some Jewish leaders warn against visiting the site on religious grounds.
The Israeli government has repeatedly said that it intends to uphold the status quo at the compound, but Palestinian fears about its future have made it a flashpoint for violence.
The U.N. has previously denounced "any efforts to change the status quo within the holy sites."
