Israeli ministers lead mass Al-Aqsa Mosque raid
Ministers and lawmakers led a mass raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque by ultranationalist Israelis on Thursday.
Thousands of Israelis entered the Islamic holy site in occupied East Jerusalem under the protection of heavily armed Israeli police.
Ahead of the raids, Israeli forces barred many Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque for pre-dawn prayers, forcing them to pray in nearby streets.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs said more than 3,200 Israelis had entered the mosque courtyards by 12 pm local time. The raids were ongoing and expected to continue in the afternoon.
Among those taking part were Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's national security minister; Yitzhak Wasserlauf, minister for the Negev, Galilee and national resilience; and Amit Halevi, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
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"Look at what is happening here - Jews praying, feeling like they are the owners here. This never happened here before," Ben Gvir said.
The Palestinian ministry condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what it described as a "blatant incursion" led by the Israeli officials.
"The incursion constitutes a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and a serious assault on the historical and legal status quo at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," the ministry said.
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunams, is an exclusive right of Muslims alone. It is indivisible and cannot be shared. These provocative actions, carried out at the highest political levels of the occupation government, are aimed at igniting a religious war across the entire region."
وسط صمت شعبي دولي إسلامي.. المستوطنون يستبحون الأقصى منذ الصباح pic.twitter.com/VX9EOzRSFX
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 23, 2026
Translation: Settlers overrun Al-Aqsa Mosque amid international and Muslim silence
The raids coincided with Tisha B'Av, the Jewish fast commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
Temple Mount groups - ultranationalist organisations that advocate destroying Al-Aqsa Mosque and replacing it with a Third Jewish Temple - had urged supporters to join the raid, saying they hoped to attract as many as 5,000 participants.
Participants were seen in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque raising Israeli flags, singing, dancing, prostrating themselves in prayer and erecting a tent for shade. Under the longstanding status quo governing the site, such acts are prohibited.
'This directly violates the fragile status quo, which bars non-Muslim prayer at the holy site'
- Peace Now, Israeli NGO
The Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces allowed groups of up to 150 people to enter the complex on Thursday, compared with the usual limit of around 30 per group.
Jewish prayers and singing - which have often been restricted to the eastern section of the complex - were also permitted throughout the site, including near the Dome of the Rock.
Peace Now, an Israeli NGO advocating for peace, warned that the "provocations" at Al-Aqsa Mosque could ignite a religious war.
"A dangerous provocation took place this morning on the Temple Mount: a mass Jewish prayer service was held in the plaza outside the mosques. This directly violates the fragile status quo, which bars non-Muslim prayer at the holy site," the group said.
"There is a direct line connecting this band of arsonists - who are trying to ignite a religious war - to the rampant settler terrorism that the prime minister himself recently labeled a cancer."
Status quo undermined
The status quo is a decades-old, internationally recognised arrangement governing the management of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Under the arrangement, the entire 144-dunam complex is recognised as an exclusively Islamic holy site.
Access to the site, prayer arrangements, maintenance and excavations fall under the authority of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the religious trust responsible for administering the mosque.
However, since occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has steadily eroded the status quo.
Over the years, it has seized control over access to the complex from the Waqf and facilitated daily incursions by ultranationalist Israelis.
The raids have steadily increased in both size and participation, drawing tens of thousands of Israelis each year.
In recent years, Israeli authorities have also permitted Jewish prayers inside the mosque complex and the raising of Israeli flags.
Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, a senior preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, warned on Wednesday that Israeli authorities were exploiting Jewish religious occasions to escalate incursions and take provocative measures aimed at changing the status quo at the mosque.
He said the authorities had increasingly used such occasions to organise large-scale incursions involving ministers, officials and members of the Knesset in an effort to give them political legitimacy.
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