The Palestinian, Jordanian and Hamas governments on Sunday expressed their refusal to allow far-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.
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A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Ben-Gvir’s “early hour raid like thieves into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque will not alter reality and will not enforce Israeli sovereignty over it.”
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs condemned the invasion by Israeli settlers led by Minister Ben-Gvir.
A Hamas spokesman said Israel will face the consequences of Ben-Gvir’s “savage attack” on the mosque and urged Palestinians to intensify their visits and “remain like a wall against any attempts to desecrate and make it Jewish.” “.
The visit to the so-called Temple Mount took place shortly after “Jerusalem Day”, which commemorates the “reunification” of the city after the conquest of the mostly Palestinian eastern part by Israel in 1967.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has described the Tel Aviv entity’s attempt to impose new facts and control the Holy City as blatant aggression against the Palestinian people.
During the 1967 Middle East War, Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem, which includes Al-Aqsa and the adjacent Western Wall, a sacred place of worship for Jews.
Israel has since annexed East Jerusalem, unrecognized by the international community, and considers the entire city its eternal and undivided capital. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.
“I look forward to going to the Temple Mount, the most important place for the Jewish people. “We call the shots here,” Ben Gvir said in a press release.
The minister praised the police’s work and said it showed who was boss in Jerusalem.
Ben-Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in January under the protection of large numbers of Israeli occupation forces (IOF).