Ben-Gvir Storms Al-Aqsa Compound, Calls for Jewish Temple

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under police protection, performed Talmudic prayers with rabbis and settlers, and publicly declared a Jewish temple "must" eventually be built there, breaching the 1967 status quo barring non-Muslim prayer at the site. Palestinian officials condemned the incursion as an attempt to alter the compound's Islamic legal status. A senior minister's open call to build a temple marks an escalation beyond settler activism, sharpening the long dispute over Jerusalem's holiest and most contested ground.