Palestinians have condemned a far-right Israeli minister’s visit to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem as an “unprecedented provocation”.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for a tougher stance on Palestinians, walked around the site surrounded by police.
Competing claims to the compound bitterly divide Israel and the Palestinians.
Tensions have increased with the arrival of Israel’s new nationalist government.
Mr Ben Guerre’s visit was his first public act since the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in five days ago.
The hilltop site is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of the two biblical temples, and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad’s ascension. The entire compound is considered by Muslims to be the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to enter the compound but cannot pray, although Palestinians see the Jewish visits as attempts to change the critical situation.
Mr. Ben Gower, the leader of the Otzma Judaism (Jewish Power) party, has long said he wants to change the laws to allow Jewish worship at the site.
“The Temple Mount is open to everyone,” he tweeted, along with a photo of it surrounded by a security fence with the Golden Dome of the Rock in the background.
The #Israeli far right wing minster Ben Gvir visited in Al-Aqsa compound for 13 minutes for the first time since election, pic.twitter.com/IP2xk4bsTJ
— Rushdi Abualouf (@Rushdibbc) January 3, 2023
The Palestinians had previously warned against allowing Mr. Bin Guerr to visit.
Following his move, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned what it called “the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the extremist minister Ben Ghewar as an extraordinary provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict”.
A spokesman for Hamas, the Palestinian militant Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, called it a “crime” and vowed that the site would remain “Palestinian, Arab, Islamic.” JEE News reported.
Tensions with Israel escalated into violence in May 2021, when Hamas fired rockets into Jerusalem, triggering an 11-day conflict with Israel.
A visit to the site in 2000 by Israeli right-wing leader Ariel Sharon, then the opposition leader, angered the Palestinians. The violence that followed escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada.
