Ben-Gvir joins mass storming of Al-Aqsa compound during Tisha B'Av under Israeli police protection

Israeli police allowed unprecedented Jewish prayer rituals across the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Thursday in the most significant breach of the site's longstanding status quo since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

More than 4,000 Jewish worshippers entered the compound during the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, while far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the site under heavy police protection.

Speaking to The New Arab, Ismail Patel, founder and chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, said the measures went beyond previous years, with police allowing worshippers to pray aloud, sing, prostrate themselves and wear tefillin across multiple areas of the compound.

"What Israeli police allowed today has no precedent since 1967," Patel said. "For decades the rule was simple: visits permitted, prayer prohibited. That rule is now dead in practice. This is not a drift. It is a socio-political demolition, carried out in daylight, under police protection, with a serving minister leading it."

Israeli police permitted Jewish visitors to conduct religious rituals in several parts of the compound, including areas where such practices had previously been restricted, Haaretz reported.

The latest measures go beyond previous years, when Jewish prayer, although increasingly tolerated under Ben-Gvir's tenure, had largely been confined to limited sections of the site away from Muslim worshippers.

Temple Mount activist groups said more than 1,000 Jewish visitors entered the compound during the morning, with hundreds more expected later in the day as Tisha B'Av commemorations continued.

Images circulated by activist organisations showed Jewish worshippers praying inside the compound, while Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi and Temple Mount Administration head Rabbi Shimshon Elboim reportedly raised Israeli flags and sang the Israeli national anthem.

Patel argued that Thursday's events were particularly significant because they appeared to reflect official government policy rather than isolated actions by activists.

"In January Netanyahu confirmed publicly that Ben Gvir acts in coordination with him and that he decides the policy. Israel's government continues to tell the world the status quo is unchanged while its ministers stand on Al-Aqsa announcing that it has," Patel said.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is Islam's third-holiest site and has been administered by the Jordanian Islamic Waqf since Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

Under the longstanding status quo, Muslims have exclusive rights to worship at the site, while non-Muslims are permitted to visit under certain conditions but not conduct organised religious rituals.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly maintained that his government remains committed to preserving those arrangements, despite repeated accusations from Palestinians and Jordan that they have been steadily eroded.

Israeli NGO Peace Now condemned Thursday's storming, warning they risked inflaming tensions at one of the world's most contested religious sites.

"A direct line connects the rampant settler terrorism, which the prime minister himself described as cancer, and the group of arsonists trying to ignite a religious war," the organisation said.

Patel also warned that changes to Al-Aqsa had historically triggered wider regional unrest.

"Provocation at Al-Aqsa has ignited every major escalation of the past twenty-five years. Sharon's visit in 2000. The metal detectors in 2017 (and) May 2021," Patel said. "Anyone who believes this can continue without consequence has learned nothing."

Overnight, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered at the Western Wall and surrounding areas to mark Tisha B'Av.

Israeli police said they arrested 16 Jewish suspects over vandalism at a nearby Muslim cemetery and attacks on Palestinian residents in Jerusalem's Old City.