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The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate reported that 900 Israelis entered the compound in the morning with the total expected to climb as activities continued through the day. Israeli police closed streets and intersections around the Old City to facilitate the visits while forcing nearby Palestinian shops to close and restricting local residents to their homes. The governorate said visitors performed dances and sang in the courtyards of the site which Muslims know as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jews as the Temple Mount.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the group under police escort and declared that the location held primary significance for Jews. “We are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa and in the prisons and we have turned the lives of terrorist prisoners into hell” Ben-Gvir said according to an Anadolu Agency dispatch carried by Al Jazeera. He added that “the people of Israel are on the path to absolute victory and today we pray in Al-Aqsa which is the most important place for the Jewish people.”
Palestinian officials condemned the entry as a provocation that violates longstanding arrangements at the holy site. The Islamic Waqf Department which administers the compound for Muslim worshippers has repeatedly stated that non-Muslim prayer is not permitted under the status quo in place since 1967. A statement from the Jerusalem Governorate described the incident as part of efforts to impose new realities at one of Jerusalem’s most sensitive locations.
Such visits have occurred regularly during Jewish holidays in recent years according to data compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The UN body has tracked a rise in related tensions across Jerusalem and the West Bank with settler-linked incidents averaging about six per day in 2026. Palestinian news agency WAFA has documented dozens of similar entries at Al-Aqsa during the current Sukkot observance alone.
The compound remains under Jordanian custodianship for Muslim affairs while Israel maintains overall security control in East Jerusalem a arrangement that dates to the 1967 war. Israeli media outlets reported that police permitted more than 1 000 visitors to the site on the day in question. Authorities imposed age limits on Palestinian worshippers seeking to enter at the same time according to local witnesses cited by WAFA.
Ben-Gvir has entered the compound on multiple occasions since assuming office in 2022 a pattern that Palestinian leaders and Jordanian officials have criticised as destabilising. The latest visit coincided with the third day of Sukkot a week-long festival that commemorates the biblical harvest period. Al Jazeera reporting drawing on the governorate’s updates placed the morning total at 900 with expectations it could exceed previous years’ figures for the holiday.
