Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir prayed, cheered and danced at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the holiest site for Muslims, with hundreds of illegal settlers. He challenged existing rules about the sensitive Muslim religious site by entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday (August 3), Reuters reported. The report said that under a long-standing agreement, Al-Aqsa is run by Jordan’s religious foundation (Waqf). According to this agreement, non-Muslims can enter there, but they are prohibited from praying. According to Israeli government law, non-Muslims are prohibited from praying at the Al-Aqsa compound – because it is considered the third holiest site for Muslims and the holiest site for Jews. The Temple Mount Administration released a video showing Ben-Gavir walking with a group through the Al-Aqsa compound. Other videos purport to show him praying, although Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the videos. Ben-Gavir has previously visited the site and called for Jews to be allowed to pray there. On Sunday, he said he prayed for Israel\u2019s victory over Hamas in Gaza and the release of Israeli citizens held by it. He also renewed his call for the occupation of the Gaza Strip. Hours before the incursion, Ben-Gavir led another procession through Jerusalem\u2019s Old City at midnight. Palestinian officials told the Wafa news agency that the incident had reached \u201cunprecedented levels of political and religious incitement.\u201d After Ben-Gavir and the Jewish incursions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, \u201cOur position on the Al-Aqsa compound is unchanged and will not change.\u201d Previous hints of changing the rules at Al-Aqsa had sparked intense anger and violence in the Muslim world. However, there were no immediate reports of violence during the visit on Sunday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas\u2019s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, called the visit \u201ca violation of all limits.\u201d \u201cThe international community, especially the United States, must intervene now to stop the crimes of the settlers and the provocative actions of the far-right Israeli government,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ongoing war in Gaza must be stopped and humanitarian aid must be delivered there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir prayed, cheered and danced at the Al-Aqsa Mosque…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852.jpg",1280,720,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-1115x715.jpg",1115,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Biz Trend 24","author_link":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/author\/online24"},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Untitled-design-2025-08-04T113506.852.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37198,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37196\/revisions\/37198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biztrend24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}