National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led prayers atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where he boasted Wednesday morning that Israel reigns victorious at the hilltop, two years after the October 7, 2023 massacre that Hamas said was inspired by the hotly-contested holy site.
“We are now two years since the terrible massacre… Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount and now, two years later, we are victorious on the Temple Mount, we are the landlords on the Temple Mount,” said the far-right leader, speaking in front of the Dome of the Rock shrine.
Footage shared by the minister’s office showed him leading morning prayers for a group of Jewish worshipers near the eastern wall of the Temple Mount complex, marking the second day of the week-long festival of Sukkot.
The Temple Mount, the former site of both Jewish Temples which today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, is a hotly contested site charged with religious significance for both Jews and Muslims.
Under a status quo arrangement between Israel and Jordan, Jews are ostensibly barred from praying at the site. But the past year has seen a major shift on the ground, with police permitting Jewish worshipers to pray and even prostrate themselves in certain areas further from the Dome of the Rock.
Ben Gvir, who oversees law enforcement as national security minister, has continuously asserted that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer atop the Temple Mount.
Speaking from the holy site, Ben Gvir further called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure the destruction of Hamas and “total victory” in Gaza, amid fast-moving talks for a hostage and ceasefire deal.
His visit came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators traveled to Egypt for indirect talks on the return of the hostages, release of Palestinian security prisoners and a ceasefire, as part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
The minister drew vehement condemnation from Hamas, which called the ascent “a deliberately provocative move that reflects the fascist thinking of the Israeli government.”
The terror group added that the visit, which took place on the same date as the Temple Mount riots (“the Al-Aqsa massacre,” as Hamas calls it) on October 8, 1990, was a hostile message meant to impose control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The visit also took place the day after the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza. The terror group dubbed the attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Saudi Arabia also condemned what it called the “storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli officials and settlers under the protection of the occupation forces.”
The Gulf kingdom reiterated its “strongest condemnation” of the “continued attacks on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Ben Gvir’s last visit to the Temple Mount was in August this year during the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av. The ultranationalist politician became the first government minister to openly pray there, shattering a long-standing prohibition.
Though Jordan governs the complex itself via the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, its entrances are manned by Israeli authorities; Jewish visitors to the site are escorted through the area by Israeli police officers.
There was no immediate comment on Ben Gvir’s visit from Netanyahu.
The firebrand politician’s insistence on encouraging prayer on the Temple Mount has in the past prompted alarmed responses from Netanyahu, usually quick to disavow his coalition partner’s remarks and insist that the status quo has not changed.
In addition, many Jewish religious authorities have historically proscribed visits to the Temple Mount due to concerns of treading on holy ground while ritually impure.
Changes to the Temple Mount’s status quo evoke strong emotions around the Muslim world and are frequently cited as a motivation for religious violence.