Hundreds of Israelis, led by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday under Israeli police protection, according to Al Jazeera. Upon entering, Ben-Gvir declared that “we are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa.”
The incursion, Al Jazeera reported, came on the third day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot — a period that draws elevated numbers of Jewish worshippers toward the Old City, and one that Palestinian authorities have consistently flagged as a flashpoint for incursions at the site.
The compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims know as Haram al-Sharif, is among the most religiously sensitive parcels of land on earth. The Jerusalem governorate said Israeli forces had closed intersections and streets around the Old City that lead to the compound ahead of the incursion.
Some context is needed for Ben-Gvir’s claim of ownership, because the actual administration of the site is governed by an arrangement nearly as old as the modern state of Israel. Under the fragile decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, the compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation; Jews are permitted to visit but not to pray there, Reuters has reported of the minister’s earlier visits.
Monday was not Ben-Gvir’s first visit, nor his first version of the sentence. In August 2025 he led prayers at the site, drawing condemnation from Palestinians and others; at the time, the BBC reported, the Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement insisting there had been no change to Israel’s policy of preserving the status quo that restricts worship to Muslims. And NBC News reported that in a July visit this year he pointed approvingly to “Jews praying, feeling like they’re the owners of the place,” adding: “This has never happened before.” Jordan’s foreign ministry and the Palestinian religious affairs ministry both condemned that visit as a violation of the status quo agreements.
Monday’s formulation dropped the qualification and kept the claim. Reporting on the incursion was still developing, including the precise number of participants and any Palestinian response; Al Jazeera described it as involving hundreds of Israelis under heavy police guard, with the surrounding Old City access points shut down by Israeli forces.
What the reporting so far makes plain is the asymmetry built into the day’s events: those being escorted up were led by the minister whose ministry oversees the police doing the escorting, while the streets below were closed to everyone else. Under the status quo, Ben-Gvir’s ministry has authority over the police who guard an arrangement the minister himself publicly disavows each time he enters.