Anger as far-right Israeli minister prays at flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem
The area, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and was home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims call the site the Noble Sanctuary, and today it is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Visits are considered a provocation across the Muslim world and openly praying violates a longstanding status quo at the site.
Under the status quo, Jews have been allowed to tour the site but are barred from praying, with Israeli police and troops providing security.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said after Mr Ben-Gvir's visit that Israel would not change the norms governing the holy site.
Mr Ben-Gvir made the stop after Hamas released videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused in uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home from Gaza the remaining hostages who were captured on October 7 2023, in the attack that triggered the war.
During his visit to the hilltop compound, Mr Ben-Gvir called for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and encourage Palestinians to leave, reviving rhetoric that has complicated negotiations to end the war.
He condemned the video that Hamas released on Saturday of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David, showing him looking skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel.
The minister called it an attempt to pressure Israel.
Mr Ben-Gvir's previous visits to the site have been explosive and prompted threats from Palestinian militant groups. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators in and around the site fuelled an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.
His Sunday visit was swiftly condemned as an incitement by Palestinian leaders as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Sufian Qudah, spokesman for the foreign ministry in neighboring Jordan, which serves as the custodian of the Al Aqsa Mosque, condemned what he called 'provocative incursions by the extremist minister' and implored Israel to prevent escalation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
11 minutes ago
- Spectator
Kate Forbes's exit is proof the SNP has lost its way
In little over a week, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has lost two of its greatest political stars. Mhairi Black, the left-wing MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, threw in the towel last week, citing the 'toxicity' of politics and the party's lack of support for transgender rights. Now, the deputy leader of the SNP, Kate Forbes – regarded as a social conservative – has stepped down to spend more time with her family. The trickle of nationalist departures risks turning into a flood. Forbes's departure is the greater shock. Many regarded the 35-year-old MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch as the leading leadership challenger from the right of the party. As the SNP's first female Finance Secretary, she championed a return to pro-business economics and strongly defended the oil and gas industry. Her statement today that she doesn't want to miss 'the precious early years of family life' – she has a three-year-old daughter – came as a complete surprise. Mhairi Black, on the other hand, had long expressed her disillusionment with Westminster politics and had made it clear last year that she was standing down as an MP. However, her many supporters on the left of the SNP hoped she might seek a political future in Holyrood. Instead, she announced on 25 July that she was quitting the SNP for good. Black was highly regarded as an articulate and dynamic champion of the youth vote. When she was elected to Paisley and Renfrewshire South in 2015, defeating the Labour cabinet minister Douglas Alexander, she became the youngest MP to be elected since 1832 at 20 years old. Black went on to become deputy leader of the SNP in Westminster and, with a prominent media profile, including a show at the Edinburgh Festival, was seen by many as the future of Scottish nationalism. But last week, she cited the SNP leadership's 'capitulations on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular' as the reason she could no longer remain a party member. She also criticised the SNP leader, John Swinney, for equivocating on the issue of Palestinian 'genocide'. There is little doubt that Black regarded Kate Forbes as a leading figure in those 'capitulations'. The deputy leader made clear that she 'unequivocally' supported 'single-sex spaces and women's rights', and Forbes openly praised the gender-critical author J.K. Rowling as a 'national treasure'. A committed Christian and member of an evangelical sect, Forbes also said she personally did not support abortion, although she accepted that it was the law of the land. She admitted that she would have voted against same-sex marriage had she been in Holyrood when the matter was debated in 2012. Black argued that the SNP could not remain a party of young people while clinging to such policies. Centrists may argue that the departures of these two controversial figures, in a sense, cancel each other out, allowing the party to stabilise behind John Swinney, the ultimate centrist dad. But this development will only further demoralise the party as it seeks to avoid defeat in next year's Holyrood election and has barely recovered from its drubbing in last year's general election when it lost 38 seats. The loss of two high-profile women only adds to the sense that the SNP has lost direction since the equally sudden departure of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in February 2023. Of course, many will blame the difficulties that women face in politics, though neither Sturgeon nor Mhairi Black had young children to look after. The attrition rate for female politicians in Scotland is high. The former women leaders of the Scottish Labour party, Kezia Dugdale, and the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, also left politics at short notice. However, as far as the SNP is concerned, it is probably more a consequence of the failure of nationalist politics than of personal issues or misogyny. Kate Forbes stood for the party leadership as recently as 2023 and lost narrowly to Humza Yousaf, who is himself standing down at next year's Holyrood elections. The former SNP minister, Fergus Ewing, who left the party last month, has said: 'With Alex Salmond's passing last year, the SNP lost the best leader it ever had; with Kate's decision, the SNP has lost the best leader it never had.' The SNP has haemorrhaged electoral support since the departure of Nicola Sturgeon and is now polling in the low 30s. The current leader, John Swinney, has been heavily criticised for his lacklustre leadership and his failure to translate support for independence, which is running at over 50 per cent in many recent opinion polls, into support for the party of independence. This latest shock will only increase murmurs of discontent about Swinney's leadership. The main beneficiary is likely to be the party's Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, who is beginning to look like a shoo-in for SNP leader if and when John Swinney takes the long walk.
Telegraph
42 minutes ago
- Telegraph
We must not allow Palestine Action activists to destroy our criminal justice system
Keir Starmer's reckless plan to recognise a Palestinian state without any precondition on hostage release is bearing strange fruit at home and abroad. Hamas terrorists welcomed the commitment by the UK and France as an endorsement of the October 7 atrocity, and have recently paraded one of their emaciated captives on a video and told him to dig his own grave. But in the grim and cynical political calculation Labour has made, one factor endures: Jews don't count. Here at home, too, the now proscribed Palestine Action group has taken heart from Starmer's cave-in. There is blood in the water. They are planning acts of mass civil disobedience over the coming weeks to protest the ban on the organisation on July 5 after four of their activists breached an RAF base and vandalised two aircraft at an estimated cost of £7million. The strategy is not a new one. The goal is to overwhelm the criminal justice system, which is already struggling under the strain of failing front line cops, jammed up courts and overflowing jails. Mass peaceful disobedience trying to change laws has historical resonance. Think of the Montgomery Bus boycott in the US civil rights struggle or the anti-colonial protests in pre-independence India. The Suffragettes used both peaceful and then violent acts of civil disobedience to achieve the same ends. The thing that you notice about these examples is that they had both numbers and morality on their side. While plenty of people are discomfited by Palestine Actions activities, there is an argument that an organisation that targets things, not people, should not be labelled as terrorists. That argument is due to be tested in court as lawyers for the group have successfully argued for a judicial review of the ban. The judge hearing the original appeal said the Government had not consulted Palestine Action on the ban: this is like a farmer consulting turkeys on their welfare ahead of Christmas. Whatever your position on proscription, we are in more than enough trouble as it is policing public order around illegal migration. It is perfectly rational for the leaders of PA to seek to add to this woe by staging protests where people will be deliberately and clearly in breach of the Terrorism Act 2000 in numbers that will make enforcement a mockery. The offence of supporting a terror organisation is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and even arrest can have profound future consequences for foreign travel and employment. These facts are likely to be glossed over by zealots within the movement who see their actions as 'martyrdom' in terms of what many in their ranks would style as the 'resistance' movement in Gaza. The trouble with these people is their tendency to mobilise others, the naive and credulous in particular, to take the hit for them. Our enduring problem here is the collapse of trust in our law enforcement agencies to enforce existing laws, not the lack of new ones. The next month is looking rocky for public order. We have already seen protests, some violent, against migrant hotels and some occupants charged with sexual offences. The public mood is febrile across the country. This additional stress could be alleviated if the Government acts decisively against mass protests by people who simply believe the law does not apply to them. This means identifying the ringleaders of the PA strategy and dealing with them first. Whether the state is ultimately right or wrong about proscription is secondary to the public order risk. We cannot let activists of any group organise in plain sight to bring down the criminal justice system in a democracy.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Netanyahu is 'planning to expand the conflict in Gaza to bring home hostages', diplomatic source says after Hamas shares images of emaciated hostages amid 'starvation' row
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly planning to expand the conflict in Gaza to bring home hostages after Hamas released chilling images of emaciated captives. A diplomatic source quoted in Hebrew media on Sunday revealed the Israeli Prime Minister is 'pushing for the release of the hostages through decisive military victory, combined with the entry of humanitarian aid to areas outside the combat zone, and, as much as possible, outside of Hamas control'. The comments came as distraught families of the captives unleashed a furious backlash over reports the government is considering expanding its military offensive in the Gaza Strip - a move critics say could endanger those still in Hamas captivity. Netanyahu himself appeared visibly shaken in a video statement after harrowing footage emerged of two hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, both looking skeletal and pale in what appeared to be an underground tunnel. David, digging what he believed to be his own grave was heard begging for his life. But the Israeli leader said the shocking videos only hardened his resolve. 'I understand exactly what Hamas wants, it doesn't want a deal. It wants to break us - with these horrifying videos, with the false horror propaganda it spreads across the world,' he said in a clip released by his office. The comments come as Washington, according to US envoy Steve Witkoff, is shifting its focus from temporary hostage-for-ceasefire deals to a broader goal of ending the war altogether. This leaves Israel with the stark choice of intensifying the fighting or allowing more time for negotiations. Amid the chaos, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum - representing the families of the 50 hostages still believed to be alive - accused Netanyahu of 'leading Israel and the hostages to the abyss'. The Forum said the prime minister 'is preparing the greatest scam,' and that any talk about releasing the hostages through decisive victory is 'a fraud'. 'For 22 months now the public has been sold the illusion that military pressure and intense fighting will bring the hostages back,' said the group. 'Even before the draft for a comprehensive deal was written, we're being told there is no feasibility for a deal.' The group stressed that expanding the way endanger the lives of hostages who are at risk of imminent death. 'We saw the chilling images of the hostages in the tunnels, they won't survive more long days of horror,' it said, adding that expanding the Gaza war 'is a guarantee of the failure of the century.' 'There is no victory nor any revival in it,' the Forum concluded. Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is being held hostage in Gaza, said that 'the political leadership has decided to carry out the 'final solution' on my son Matan and 49 other hostages.' 'For 667 days, the hostages have been enduring a Holocaust in the tunnels, and instead of reaching a full agreement to end the war... Netanyahu is preparing an operation to turn the living hostages into corpses and to erase the fallen,' she added. Israeli security officials have privately acknowledged that they have long known the captives were being starved - reportedly by deliberate order of their captors. Sources familiar with the issue were cited by the Ynet news site as saying: 'The visual was still devastating, but it's not something we didn't know.' Braslavski and David are among just 20 hostages still believed to be alive. At last 28 others are confirmed dead, their bodies still held by terror groups, while the fate of two more remains uncertain. Cabinet ministers are deeply split by the decision to expand the bloody war. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs are reportedly in favour of expanding the war. But IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Mossad chief David Barnea and other top security officials are warning against the move, citing the hostages' dire conditions. Netanyahu, however, has shown no signs of backing down, declaring: 'We will not break. I am filled with even greater determination to free our captive sons, to eliminate Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel.' It comes after Hamas said Sunday it was prepared to coordinate with the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostages it holds in Gaza, if Israel meets certain conditions, following the release of the emaciated hostage video. Hamas said any coordination with the Red Cross is contingent upon Israel permanently opening humanitarian corridors and halting airstrikes during the distribution of aid. The video of David drew criticism from Western powers and horrified Israelis. France, Germany, the UK and the US were among countries to express outrage and Israel's foreign ministry announced that the UN Security Council will hold a special session on Tuesday morning on the issue of the situation of the hostages in Gaza. Netanyahu said on Sunday he had asked the Red Cross to give humanitarian assistance to the hostages during a conversation with the head of the Swiss-based ICRC's local delegation. The premier's office said he spoke to the ICRC coordinator for the region, Julien Lerisson, and 'requested his involvement in providing food to our hostages and... immediate medical treatment'. The ICRC said in a statement it was 'appalled by the harrowing videos' and reiterated its 'call to be granted access to the hostages'. In response, Hamas's armed wing said it would allow the agency access to the hostages but only if 'humanitarian corridors' for food and aid were opened 'across all areas of the Gaza Strip'. The Al-Qassam Brigades said it did 'not intentionally starve' the hostages, but they would not receive any special food privileges 'amid the crime of starvation and siege' in Gaza. The Hostages Families Forum over the weekend said Hamas' comments about the hostages cannot hide that it 'has been holding innocent people in impossible conditions for over 660 days,' and demanded their immediate release. 'Until their release,' said the statement, 'Hamas has the obligation to provide them with everything they need. Hamas kidnapped them and they must care for them. Every hostage who dies will be on Hamas's hands.' Six more people died of starvation or malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, its health ministry said on Sunday as Israel said it allowed a delivery of fuel to the enclave, in the throes of a humanitarian disaster after almost two years of war. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the war began, the ministry said. Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said two trucks carrying 107 tons of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it somewhat as starvation began to spread. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said later in the day that four tankers of UN fuel had entered to help in operations of hospitals, bakeries, public kitchens and other essential services. There was no immediate confirmation whether the two diesel fuel trucks had entered Gaza from Egypt. Fuel shipments have been rare since March, when Israel restricted the flow of aid into the enclave in what it said was pressure on Hamas militants to free the remaining hostages they took in their October 2023 attack on Israel. Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international uproar, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys. UN agencies say airdrops are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the territory to prevent starvation among its 2.2million people, most of whom are displaced amidst vast swathes of rubble. COGAT said that during the past week over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organisations. Meanwhile, Belgium's air force dropped the first in a series of its aid packages into Gaza on Sunday in a joint operation with Jordan, the Belgian defence ministry said.
